Jessica Cisneros, a progressive attorney challenging Representative Henry Kueller (D-Texas), on Wednesday called on members of the Democratic Party’s congressional leadership to withdraw their support for Kueller, the final abortion rights anti-abortion caucus in the House Democratic caucus.
Cisneros seized on Monday night’s revelation that the Supreme Court in Roe v. Wade’s decision to guarantee the federal right to abortion for House Democratic leaders, almost all of whom Support Cuellarto reconsider their support.
“At every turn, my congressman has stood against the agenda of the Democratic Party, from being anti-union to anti-choice,” Cisneros said in a statement. repeated in a video Posted on social media. “On the line with the House majority, that could be the deciding vote on the future of our reproductive rights and we cannot afford that.”
“I hope the Democratic Party’s leadership will not stand in the way of delivery to South Texas,” she said. “I stand ready to work with him to fulfill the Democratic agenda.”
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Cal.), Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), Majority Whip James Clyburn (DSC), and House Democratic Chairman Hakeem Jeffries (D.N.Y) have all endorsed Kueller. Clyburn is even slated title of a rally to Kueller in San Antonio on Wednesday.
HuffPost contacted the offices of Pelosi, Hoyer and Clyburn for a response to Cisneros’ request.
As of late Wednesday evening, only Hoyer’s office has provided a response.
“House Democrats passed the Women’s Health Protection Act last September to codify Roe and protect abortion rights,” Hoyer spokeswoman Margaret Mulkerin said in a statement. “The Senate now has to pass it and send it to the President to sign.”
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The scenario that Cisneros portrayed, in which Kueller would have a decisive vote on a law to codify abortion rights, is not impossible if Democrats retain their majority in the House in November, but the majority shrinks by a margin of one vote. Is.
In the current Congress, however, as Hoyer’s office notes, the House is already passed law Codifying abortion rights in September, despite Kueller’s lone Democratic “no” vote. Democrats’ paper-thin majority in the Senate, where the filibuster prevents them from passing a bill by a simple majority, has thus prevented that bill from becoming law.
In addition, Democrats need to hold the 28th Congressional District of Texas to maintain their majority in the House, and Kueller has made the case that only a socially conservative Democrat like him is capable of doing so. Like the predominantly Latino seats in South Texas, the district shifted significantly in 2020 toward then-President Donald Trump. Hillary Clinton, however, carried the seat. about 20 percent marksPresident Joe Biden won there by only four percentage points.
Cisneros’ appeal is nonetheless part of a broader call by progressives by Democratic leaders to take dramatic steps to reaffirm their commitment to women’s reproductive rights in the wake of leaked Supreme Court news. In addition to his statement on Wednesday, he and the Justice Democrats, the left-wing group that supports him, have sent several email fundraising appeals to help him defeat “the last anti-choice Democrat in Congress.”
Cisneros, who is challenging Kueller for the Democratic nomination in Texas’ 28th for a second consecutive cycle, trailed him by two percentage points during the first round of their rematch in March. The presence of a third candidate prevented Kueller from achieving an absolute majority, induce a runoff The match between Cuellar and Cisneros on May 24.
There are other cases in which stances on abortion rights are on the opposite point among Democratic candidates in competitive primaries. In North Carolina’s first congressional district, former state Sen. Erica Smith has the support of the Planned Parenthood Action Fund and NARAL Pro-Choice America in her race against state Sen. Don Davis.
Davis has taken some votes that undermine abortion rights in North Carolina, but insists she supports the fundamental right to abortion and condemns leaked news reports pending a Supreme Court decision to overturn Row .
Smith still hopes this news will give him an edge in the May 17 primary. According to spokesman Morris Katz, he received the most donations on Tuesday of any day of his campaign.
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