In South Texas, political scandals that have broader implications usually don’t slip by unnoticed. In the 28th Congressional District, which encompasses Laredo and its vital border cities, voters are being urged to accept the results of the 2024 Congressional election amidst claims of legal and procedural issues.
This election featured an incumbent, a significant number of reported vote omissions, possibly misplaced ballot boxes, and even a county judge who interrupted the investigation into court orders before announcing plans to destroy official votes while seeking election for the very position in question.
Incumbent representative Henry Cuellar, a Democrat, who is currently in his 11th term, is facing Federal accusations. Prosecutors have alleged that Cuellar accepted over $600,000 from foreign sources between 2014 and 2021, including funds from Azerbaijan’s state-owned oil companies and major Mexican banks.
Furthermore, at least two senior staff members have pleaded guilty to collusion and are cooperating with the Department of Justice. Despite the mounting evidence against Cuellar, he somehow managed to secure re-election amidst national pressure to suspend his candidacy. Media coverage surrounding this case has generally been brief and lacking depth.
His Republican challenger, Jay Furman, has contested the election results, submitting more than 80 affidavits from voters who claimed they couldn’t find his name on the ballot. These were all signed under threat of perjury, detailing instances where voters arrived only to discover the absence of the Republican candidate’s name. Furman also provided various legal declarations from county residents confirming similar experiences.
According to Texas law, candidates can officially challenge every ballot cast for them, which means Furman contested around 66,000 votes from Webb County. However, it seems authorities implemented questionable restrictions on recounts that seemingly violated legal standards. Furman himself had to produce each copy of the ballots without assistance, as the county’s copier is not designed for the specific size of voting ballots.
Due to these strange restrictions, Furman claims it took nearly a week to find equipment capable of processing the votes, and despite suspicions, a forensic investigation was halted before stopping altogether.
This dispute has made its way to the 4th Court of Appeals, where a judge ordered a forensic review of the votes and instructed Webb County Judge Tano Tigerina to act swiftly. However, Judge Tigerina appears to have disregarded this order, resulting in no audits or public scrutiny of the process. Not long after, Tigerina, who was overseeing this conflict, switched party affiliations from Democrat to Republican and began planning to run for the same seat in the 2026 Republican primary.
Furman has stated that Tigerina told him prior to the election that if Furman did not defeat Cuellar, he would run for the position himself. Blocking Furman’s legal challenges during the recount seems to allow Tigerina to proceed with his apparent plans unimpeded.
Moreover, the election itself was marred by irregularities, including a missing ballot box during the recount. Under Texas law, mishandling of such items can lead to serious violations that could invalidate the election results. There has been no clarification on how the box left secure storage, or whether its contents ended up compromised.
Adding to the complications, it has been reported that unused ballots were destroyed before the recount began, which is against Texas law that requires all unused ballots to be preserved post-election. This destruction further erodes safeguards against fraud and could have serious legal consequences.
In the context of national trends, Donald Trump won the district by 7 points, yet Cuellar managed to win his race with a narrower margin of victory – a 5-point difference. This 12-point shift, without a clear explanation for a Democratic decline, raises eyebrows.
I’ve generally been skeptical about claims of widespread election fraud, but after delving into the affidavits and subsequent events, it’s hard to brush aside the happenings in Texas’ 28th District. This seems to be more than just administrative mishaps; it reflects a broader breakdown in electoral laws, security, and fairness.
The fact that candidates’ names could vanish from ballots, court orders could be ignored by judges in actual positions of authority, and all this could unfold without significant media scrutiny is alarming for all Americans. If such issues continue unchecked, they set a precarious precedent for future elections, both in South Texas and across the nation.
If the public cannot trust that elections are conducted fairly and transparently, the very roots of our democracy are at risk. The legitimacy of our legislative bodies, public confidence, and the peaceful transfer of power all hinge on the assurance that every vote is counted accurately and that no one can leverage their position to evade accountability.
The focus on uncovering national election fraud, driven during the Trump administration, is thus substantively justified given this situation.
