Susie Coen US Correspondent

You will struggle to find many South Texans who don’t know Bobby Pulido.

Thirty years ago he and his white cowboy hat stormed onto the music scene, ushering in a younger crowd of Tejano music fans. His debut album Desvelado sold 100,000 copies in the US, and reached the US Billboard top 10 Latin albums.

But in February Pulido, 54, will play the final gig of his farewell tour as he bows out of his glittering music career in the hope of storming another stage – the political one.

The Latino Grammy-award-winning star is running for Congress in his home district in Texas and brings the sort of name recognition and moderate politics that could help flip the seat blue in 2026’s elections.

While the jump from celebrated singer to congressional candidate is not a well-trodden path, Pulido’s interest in politics started long before he sang his first breakout hit.

“I studied political science in college and I wanted to be a lawyer and I wanted to get into politics. That’s always been a dream of mine,” Pulido told The Telegraph.

Republicans have a razor-thin House majority and historically the party in power struggles during midterm elections.

The Cook Political Report has listed 36 House races as competitive – and Texas District 15 isn’t one of them.

While polls predict GOP incumbent Monica de la Cruz, who in 2022 became the first Republican to win the district in 118 years, will hang onto her seat, Pulido is confident he stands a chance.

“We have just as good a chance to win this thing as she does,” he said.

“I really feel like we have a lot of momentum... I can’t sit and tell you I’m exactly sure, I can guarantee you we’re going to win, but I do feel we have a much better chance than anybody had given us when I first announced,” he said.

Pulido, a father-of-four from Edinburg, Texas, describes himself as a “small-town” person who grew up fishing and hunting and joining his father, who was also a celebrated singer, on the road.

His campaign video shows him riding a horse in a cowboy hat.

“You may know me as Bobby Pulido the singer... I am José Roberto Pulido Jr, the son of a migrant farmworker and 100 per cent South Texas Tejano,” he says in the two-minute clip.

Trying to distance himself from divisive politics, he adds: “I’m not team red or team blue, South Texas, I’m team you.”

Speaking to The Telegraph in a navy polo shirt and a cap instead of his usual cowboy hat, Pulido describes himself as a Blue Dog Democrat, a moderate centrist. He is pro-oil, supports border security and family values.

He has considered running for office since 2022, when Democratic congressman Vicente Gonzalez’s wife Lorenza “planted the bug” by suggesting he would make a great candidate.

“That was the same year that Congresswoman Monica de la Cruz won and I was not a fan of hers and I kind of said, ‘well, I’m going to keep an eye on this’.

“You know, I felt I could beat her, but I said, I’m going to keep an eye on see how she does and that first year, it was a rubber stamp on everything that her party did.

“I just didn’t feel like she really represented the people.”

“Pulido is exactly the type of Democratic candidate who is successful in South Texas,” Mark Jones, political science professor at Rice University in Houston, said.

“Somebody who is a centrist, somebody who’s pro Second Amendment rights, who’s not a social justice warrior and who overall can make a very effective appeal to the middle-of-the-road voter who effectively determines the winner in South Texas congressional districts,” he added.

Donald Trump performed well with Latino voters across the board in 2024, winning around 46 per cent compared with 32 per cent in 2020, but Democrats made gains with Hispanic voters in recent races.

Earlier in December, a Democratic candidate won the mayoral election in Miami for the first time in almost 30 years.

Mr Trump’s approval rating among Latinos in Texas dropped from 44 per cent in February to 32 per cent in October, according to the University of Texas/Texas Politics Project poll.

South Texas might have jolted to the Right in 2024 but Mr Trump is not on the ballot. Some voters in the 80 per cent Latino district are unhappy with the US president’s hardline immigration policies.

And while the Supreme Court has cleared the way for Texas to use a new congressional map that could help Republicans win five more House seats next year.

“Congresswoman Monica de la Cruz saw her district change significantly... close to half of her new constituents are not her current constituents, meaning that she’s going to have to introduce herself to a whole new group of voters so the natural incumbency advantage that sitting members of Congress often enjoy is significantly reduced,” Mr Jones said.

Pulido, meanwhile, already has high name recognition because of his career as a music star. He must first win the Democratic primary before facing Ms de la Cruz.

“He’s the Democratic Party’s best hope for flipping one of the 25 seats [in Texas] that is presently held by a Republican,” Mr Jones added.

“He’s such a prominent figure in the Tejano music scene that it’s tough to live in South Texas without knowing who Bobby Pulido is even if it’s not a music genre that you follow,” he said.

Dr Brent Boyea, political science professor at the University of Texas, said that if Ms de la Cruz wins this election it will be difficult for a Democrat to defeat her going forward.

“The South Texas area was strongly Democratic, but as you know it’s been undergoing a change for the last few election cycles and President Trump in particular has been pretty popular and so we’ve seen representative de la Cruz, for example, be among the first Republicans to be elected in forever,” he said.

“From the perspective of the Democratic Party, now’s the time to confront that and try to find good quality candidates to defeat a relatively new representative... that’s kind of why you have a pretty big name to be encouraged to run.”

Pulido described the Republican success in the 2024 election as an “anomaly” and he believes the “tides are shifting” in Texas.

“People are happy not seeing the border loose and people coming in... They’re absolutely not happy about ICE raids,” he said.

Local business owners are suffering because the workforce has depleted as even Latinos with green cards are too scared of being caught in a raid, Pulido said.

“I have met several people whose relatives have been deported,” Pulido said, noting that there are a “lot of people” that regret voting for Mr Trump.

So far Pulido has been juggling campaigning – holding “ranch halls” and appearing on podcasts – with his farewell tour. He said he was looking forward to hanging up his microphone in February 2026 to focus on the campaign.

“I might have got a little emotional at my last concert,” he said.

“I’m leaving a good thing. I love singing, I love performing, but either I was going to be a guy on the sidelines complaining about the system, or I was going to jump in and do something about it.”