WASHINGTON — Voters in Texas’ new 35th Congressional District on Tuesday will cast their ballots in a pair of wide-open primaries to decide the Democratic and Republican nominees in the San Antonio-area seat, one of five overhauled last year to be more favorable for the GOP.
There are 11 Republicans and four Democrats running in the primaries for the 35th District, both of which could go to May runoffs between the top two finishers if nobody wins a majority of the vote. The area’s current representative, Democrat Greg Casar, was drawn out of his seat and is now running in the solidly blue 37th District.
The new 35th’s boundaries contain less than 10% of its former constituency and now cover parts of San Antonio and outlying eastern areas in Bexar, Guadalupe, Wilson and Karnes counties. If the updated lines had existed in 2024, the district would have gone to Donald Trump by about 10 points, though the nonpartisan Cook Political Report gives congressional Republicans a four-point advantage. Democrats have set their sights on overcoming the GOP gerrymander that created the Hispanic-majority district, believing they could capitalize on a leftward shift of Hispanic voters since Trump took office.
On the Republican side, the biggest watershed moment of the primary came when Trump endorsed Air Force veteran Carlos De La Cruz on the eve of early voting — a show of support that has often helped decisively boost GOP candidates in contested Texas primaries.
One of De La Cruz’s main rivals is state Rep. John Lujan, a San Antonio Republican who’s betting he can overcome the Trump endorsement due to his familiarity among voters who elected him to his overlapping district in the Texas House.
Also among the apparent frontrunners are former Republican congressional staffer Josh Cortez, Navy veteran Jay Furman and entrepreneur Ryan Krause, each of whom have raised competitive amounts of campaign cash and bring varying political experience to the race. Furman was the 2024 nominee for the 28th Congressional District, which covers some of the new District 35; he lost by about 6 points to incumbent Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Laredo. Krause most recently lost the 2020 and 2022 GOP primaries for the 15th District against Rep. Monica De La Cruz, the sister of Carlos De La Cruz.
Trump’s support of Carlos De La Cruz over Lujan was all the more notable because the seat was carved out by Republicans in the Texas Legislature, including Lujan, at the president’s request. Re-elected to the Texas House in 2021 after flipping a traditionally Democratic seat, Lujan currently represents southern and eastern portions of Bexar County, much of which is also part of the new congressional seat.
He’s gotten endorsements from Gov. Greg Abbott, U.S. Rep. Jake Ellzey of Waxahachie, the San Antonio Express-News and dozens of his colleagues in the Legislature. Before he was elected, Lujan was a firefighter for 25 years and served as a deputy in the Bexar County Sheriff’s Department.
At a Lujan campaign rally two years ago, Abbott said Lujan was the only Republican who could win the state House race, noting that he had failed to win the district himself in his gubernatorial race.
Lujan used his 2021 victory as a talking point during a Feb. 3 Republican candidate forum, saying that experience makes him the most qualified candidate to win against a Democrat in the general election. He also emphasized his willingness to work with lawmakers across the political aisle on bipartisan policies.
“I don’t have to agree with them on everything, but we have to come to the table,” Lujan said during the forum. “You got the far right pulling the Republicans, you got the far left pulling the Democrats, and they want to make us like Washington, D.C. — we need to keep it Texas.”
Lujan did not respond to an interview request.
Carlos De La Cruz, a small business owner who spent 20 years in the Air Force, is pitching himself as a political outsider who is “ready to be President Trump’s wingman in Congress,” as he states on his website. He has been endorsed by House Speaker Mike Johnson and three members of Texas’ congressional delegation.
Carlos De La Cruz’s sister, Monica De La Cruz, is running for reelection to Texas’ 15th District. Three counties represented by Monica De La Cruz over her terms in District 15 — Guadalupe, Karnes and Wilson — now fall under the 35th District, giving Carlos De La Cruz a potential edge in those areas due to his familiar surname.
In a statement to The Texas Tribune, Carlos De La Cruz said his service in the Air Force is what sets him apart from other primary candidates. His political priorities include border security, supporting law enforcement, seniors and veterans, and reducing regulations that harm businesses, he said.
“I could not be more proud of my sister. We come from humble beginnings, and no one knows better than I do how hard she works for the people she represents,” Carlos De La Cruz read in the statement. “It will be an honor to serve alongside her in Congress.”
Cortez previously worked for Monica De La Cruz in her congressional office, after previously serving as a veterans liaison for former U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison. A native of Guadalupe County, he said he’s the only candidate running who was raised in rural Texas and argued that his experience as a legislative staffer sets him apart from his opponents.
Cortez added that he wants to tackle Texas’ water crisis and protect the region’s energy and agriculture from federal overreach. Other priorities, he told the Tribune, include bolstering border security, cutting government spending and “restoring fiscal discipline while protecting our Social Security and Medicare.”
“I am an eighth-generation Texan from this area,” Cortez said. “This is my background, this is my people and this is my home. I have the experience, and I have the head knowledge and the on-the-streets knowledge to know what is affecting our area.”
Fundraising hauls in this district have lagged behind those of other Texas congressional races, where some candidates have raised more than $1 million.
As of Feb. 11, the last date covered by campaign finance disclosures, Furman had brought in the most money in the District 35 race at about $396,000 — $240,000 of which he personally lent to his campaign. Lujan comes in just behind Furman with about $370,000, and Carlos De La Cruz, Cortez and Krause all report similar amounts of at least $230,000.
But overall, Republicans are outraising Democrats in the race, which could be one indication of where voters will give their support, said Walter Wilson, an associate professor of political science and geography at the University of Texas at San Antonio.
“If we think of money being a way to ascertain what people think is going to happen, clearly there’s a lot more optimism on the Republican side for this district,” Wilson said.
Wilson added that one of the most important factors for who ultimately wins the seat in November will be the state of the economy. If there are worsening economic conditions by the summer, in Texas and nationally, that may bode well for Democrats’ electoral prospects, he said.
Besides Furman and Krause, other Republican candidates in the 35th District who have previously run for Congress include Vanessa Hicks-Callaway, a former field representative for Sen. Ted Cruz who lost primaries for Texas House in 2024 and 2020; Rod Lingsch, who received 10% of the vote in the 2024 primary for District 35; and Steven Wright, the District 35 nominee that year who lost handily to Casar in the then-Democratic leaning district.
Furman said during the early February candidate forum that after coming back from Navy service, he found the U.S. border was the “worst [he’s] seen anywhere.” He supports mass deportations and a moratorium on all asylum seekers, according to his campaign site.
Furman also said during the forum he wouldn’t support restoring Affordable Care Act subsidies, citing his desire to protect patients from large health care companies and give them choice in the marketplace.
“The Affordable Care Act is the opposite of good health care,” he said. “Republicans need to, as we increase our numbers in Congress, take a strong stand on this.”
Furman could not be made available for an interview by the time of publication.
Other Republican primary candidates include businessman Randy Adams, home inspector Mark Eberwine and Coast Guard veteran and architect Larry La Rose, who ran for San Antonio City Council in 2025 and lost.
In the Democratic primary, Marine Corps veteran and policy analyst John Lira and Bexar County sheriff’s deputy Johnny Garcia have emerged as front-runners against two other candidates: housing justice organizer Maureen Galindo and gun club owner Whitney Masterson-Moyes.
While Republicans redrew Texas’ 35th District to favor a GOP candidate, some Democratic Party leaders have said the seat could still be within reach.
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, national Democrats’ House campaign arm, added Texas’ 35th District to its “Districts in Play” list in December, a signal that party leaders in Washington will invest in the party’s nominee in November.
In an early February press call, Katherine Fischer, executive director of Texas Majority PAC, one of the state’s biggest Democratic groups, said voters have soured on the Trump administration to the point that it could drag down Republican congressional candidates. She singled out District 35 as a seat that Democrats could win if there’s a leftward shift among Hispanic voters, who make up 52% of the redrawn district’s eligible voting population.
Fischer’s comments came a few days after Taylor Rehmet flipped a deep red North Texas Senate seat, thanks in part to Latino voters, a traditionally Democratic bloc that has shifted to the right in recent cycles but shown signs of turning on Republicans since Trump returned to the White House.
Garcia said the district is “within striking range,” especially if Democrats can win back the Latino voters they lost in 2024. The sheriff’s deputy said he’s running on a platform of improving everyday affordability, lowering health care costs and strengthening education and public safety.
“It’s going to take the right type of Democrat — an old-school, common-sense, law-and-order Democrat to win this race,” Garcia said.
Garcia started as a corrections officer with the Bexar County Sheriff’s Office before becoming a SWAT hostage negotiator — an experience he said would help him work with representatives in Congress.
He added that years working in construction and plumbing during college made him value labor jobs and helped him secure endorsements from groups such as the San Antonio AFL-CIO and Texas AFL-CIO, which both gave him a dual endorsement with Lira.
Garcia is also backed by the centrist Democratic caucus Blue Dog Coalition and Democratic Majority for Israel PAC, a group that backs pro-Israel Democrats. The Blue Dog PAC put $5,000 into Garcia’s campaign, according to Federal Election Commission filings.
One of Garcia’s opponents, Lira, said what sets him apart from the other Democratic candidates is his policy experience and his roots in the community as someone who was born and raised in the area. In 2022, he also ran in a new district made to favor Republicans, where he lost against incumbent GOP Rep. Tony Gonzales in the 23rd Congressional District.
“I’m no stranger to running in districts that were built for Democrats to lose,” Lira said. “We were being used as political pawns — my community, my school district, my church community, so I wanted to step up again and defend against this gerrymandering.”
Lira previously was a part of the U.S. Small Business Administration and National Commission on Military, National and Public Service. He also worked for California Rep. Jimmy Panetta and on policy for veterans and military families under the Biden administration. He said his priorities include lowering the prices of everyday goods, stopping junk fees on credit cards, increasing home affordability and bringing accountability to the Trump administration and the Department of Homeland Security.
He’s notched endorsements from organizations such as the National People’s Power, the Stonewall Democrats of San Antonio and the Austin Chronicle.
Lira said he still thinks a Democrat can win in the redrawn district, especially if there’s high turnout among left-leaning voters.
“I don’t mind this drawing,” Lira said. “They didn’t draw it red enough and are still giving us Democrats an opportunity with the right candidate to make it a turnout game and to defend this seat and keep it blue.”
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