{"id":16224,"date":"2025-12-03T19:02:43","date_gmt":"2025-12-03T19:02:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/henry-cuellar-will-seek-reelection-as-a-democrat-after-trump-pardon\/"},"modified":"2025-12-03T19:02:43","modified_gmt":"2025-12-03T19:02:43","slug":"henry-cuellar-will-seek-reelection-as-a-democrat-after-trump-pardon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/henry-cuellar-will-seek-reelection-as-a-democrat-after-trump-pardon\/","title":{"rendered":"Henry Cuellar will seek reelection as a Democrat after Trump pardon"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Texas Rep. Henry Cuellar filed for reelection Wednesday as a Democrat and told reporters he had no intention to retire or switch parties hours after President Donald Trump announced pardons for him and his wife.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt came as a surprise,\u201d Cuellar told a small group of reporters about the pardon. \u201cI want to thank President Trump for this. \u2026 Now we clear the air. Nothing has changed, and we\u2019re going to be ready to win re-election again.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s announcement of the pardons Wednesday morning immediately stoked speculation that the 11-term veteran might finally switch to the GOP after years of entreaties or simply retire \u2014 giving Republicans a much better chance to flip his competitive Rio Grande Valley seat.<\/p>\n

But Cuellar quickly assured a small group of senior Democrats that he would not switch parties, according to two people granted anonymity to describe the private conversations. He also filed reelection paperwork with Texas state officials Wednesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cNothing has changed \u2014 I’m a good old conservative Democrat,\u201d Cuellar said Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Trump claimed on Truth Social that Cuellar\u2019s prosecution was the result of his speaking out against former President Joe Biden\u2019s immigration policy. Cuellar and his wife Imelda were indicted last year on more than a dozen corruption charges including bribery.<\/p>\n

\u201cHenry, I don\u2019t know you, but you can sleep well tonight \u2014 Your nightmare is finally over!\u201d Trump posted.<\/p>\n

The clemency for Cuellar comes as the president faces backlash for his use of the pardon power, including for officials in his own party. Trump has also railed for years about Biden\u2019s alleged \u201cweaponization\u201d of law enforcement, and the Cuellar pardon could serve to show that his interest in that subject crosses party lines.<\/p>\n

But it stands to complicate the GOP\u2019s longstanding effort to oust Cuellar from office. He is near the top of the party\u2019s 2026 target list, and a top Republican recruit entered the race Tuesday<\/u><\/a>.<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s glowing praise of the Texas Democrat in his announcement of the pardon Wednesday \u2014 and Cuellar\u2019s determination to seek reelection \u2014 shocked Republicans who have tried to defeat him for years.<\/p>\n

Rep. Pete Sessions, informed of the news, said Cuellar\u2019s electoral intentions show \u201cthere was not a quid pro quo” with Trump over the pardon. But the veteran Texas Republican and former NRCC chair declined to opine further.<\/p>\n

\u201cVery interesting,\u201d he said. \u201cVery interesting.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Texas Rep. Henry Cuellar filed for reelection Wednesday as a Democrat and told reporters he had no intention to retire or switch parties hours after President Donald Trump announced pardons for him and his wife. \u201cIt came as a surprise,\u201d Cuellar told a small group of reporters about the pardon. \u201cI want to thank President […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16224","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-congress"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16224","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16224"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16224\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16224"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16224"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16224"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}