Jessica Cisneros won’t concede until ‘every vote is counted’ as Rep. Henry Cuellar claims victory
Jessica Cisneros, the Democratic candidate running for Rep. Henry Cuellar’s District 28 seat, says she is still holding out on conceding the race until “every vote is counted.”
Cisneros tweeted a video saying that her campaign and those that voted for her are “not backing down” because every single vote should count. As of Wednesday night, May 25, runoff election results put Cuellar in the lead with 22,694 votes with Cisneros trailing closely behind with 22,517 votes.
Cuellar claimed victory Tuesday night, May 24, in a statement posted to Twitter, saying “all the votes have been tallied.” He congratulated Cisneros on her campaign and thanked his supporters. Those supporters came in Webb, Zapata, Starr, and Duval counties, which highly favored Cuellar and carried him to his narrow lead Tuesday night.
Cisneros, the young progressive candidate who was endorsed by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Sen. Bernie Sanders, says there are still mail-in ballots coming in and provisional ballots that need to be cured.
A provisional ballot is provided in Texas when a voter can’t present an acceptable form of ID. After filling out a Notice of Provisional Voter, that person must present proper ID to the elections office within six days.
“Henry Cuellar is the only one calling this race for himself. No one else has because this race is super close,” Cisneros says.
Cuellar seems to have defended his seat, while he is facing renewed scrutiny from fellow Democrats over his anti-abortion stance.
Billy Calzada, Staff / Staff photographer
She is encouraging those whose mail-in ballots were postmarked on May 24 to track their whereabouts on the state’s elections website. If mail-in ballots have been rejected Cisneros says to call her campaign’s voter protection hotline at 956-413-7752. Cisneros has made no mention of a recount.
Cuellar took the lead being backed by establishment Democrats like House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Rep. Jim Clyburn. But the 17-year U.S. representative has been under criticism amid the election for anti-abortion stance and an ongoing FBI investigation.
MySA reached out to Cuellar’s office for comment.
