Henry Cuellar, ahead by mere 177 votes, won South Texas primary runoff

WASHINGTON – With Laredo Rep. Henry Cuellar main by a mere 177 votes after final week’s primary runoff, and challenger Jessica Cisneros – and impartial analysts – nonetheless unwilling to name the race, the pinnacle of the get together’s House marketing campaign arm asserted Tuesday that the nine-term incumbent won.

“It appears that Congressman Cuellar has won again, and we want him coming back to Congress, if in fact, he’s our nominee,” Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney, D-N.Y., chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, or DCCC, advised The Dallas Morning News throughout a briefing with regional reporters.

“It’s my expectation that when the dust settles, he will be the Democratic nominee. And we are going to hold that seat,” he stated.

Cuellar declared victory early Wednesday, insisting his razor-thin lead would maintain.

He’s ahead by simply 0.4 proportion factors out of 45,211 ballots forged – shut, although not as shut as his 58-vote win within the 2004 primary, when he ousted incumbent Ciro Rodriguez.

Two years in the past, Cisneros, 29, fell 4 factors quick.

This time round, progressives irked by Cuellar’s opposition to abortion rights and most types of gun management pumped thousands and thousands into the hassle to push him out. Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez promoted the challenger.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and others in House Democratic management flocked to Cuellar’s protection, inflaming the left and fueling laborious emotions inside the get together.

The DCCC chair shrugged off the division.

“You’re always going to have a certain sense of loyalty to your colleagues in a Democratic caucus. That’s how it works,” Maloney stated, including, “I would never second-guess the speaker on any of our decisions, and certainly not on this one. And look, Congressman Cuellar is very independent, and there are issues that he and I disagree on.”

“But …we all have to respect the voters here,” he continued. “Henry Cuellar is a proven vote-getter in that district. He’s won in a challenging political environment, many times. He appears to have prevailed again.”

Cisneros has appealed to donors to boost $250,000 for a recount.

“Henry Cuellar is the only one calling this race,” she wrote in a latest e mail blast. “There’s a reason no one else has – the vote is too close to call.”