Democrats Back Anti-Abortion Incumbent Over Challenger in Texas

While whipping supporters into a frenzy over abortion rights, the Democratic Party has holding fire on its lone anti-abortion member in Congress, Henry Cuellar of Texas, hoping nobody notices their pursuit of power over principles.Voters go to the polls in a runoff primary today, in which Mr. Cuellar faces an abortion-rights challenger, Jessica Cisneros.Mr. Cuellar’s position on abortion — illegal except in cases of “rape, incest, and danger to the life of the mother” — would earn scorn if he had an R after his name, yet his reputation is safe from his party’s political woodchipper because the House hangs on a mere five-seat margin.So, Mr. Cuellar struts about in his Teflon armor, while Democrats embrace protests on the lawns of Supreme Court justices over the leaked draft opinion overturning Roe v. Wade and savage GOP candidates who share his position on the unborn.Attorney General Garland has also played both sides of the issue: dispatching U.S. marshals “to help ensure the justices’ safety,” while ignoring laws written to prevent mobs from intimidating judges, juries, or prosecutors. All of this fan-dancing shows that abortion is only a means to the end of maintaining power, with those who shout the loudest for TV cameras losing their voices when it comes to Mr. Cuellar. Only five of the 221 House Democrats have endorsed challenger Cisneros in the run-off primary runoff.Ms. Cisneros came within 1,000 votes of winning in the March primary, so her campaign is no quixotic endeavor, yet establishment Democrats are sticking with the anti-abortion incumbent and hoping nobody notices until he’s across the finish line. Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal of Washington, chairwoman of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, waited until a few days before the vote to end her neutrality and endorse the female candidate, covering her bases in case of an upset. Vanity Fair, in a profile of Ms. Cisneros, expressed the left’s confusion over selling out on a key issue. “Somehow,” they write, “Democratic leadership in the House continues to actively back Cuellar.” Speaker Pelosi, they report, has “reportedly been running robocalls in the district, calling Mr. Cuellar a “fighter for hardworking families,” a description that GOP candidates who also oppose the abortion industry would be proud to embrace. Ms. Pelosi is gambling that 17 years in office will make Mr. Cuellar a stronger candidate in the general election. She’s unwilling — as President Clinton said of those who lost after voting for his assault rifle ban — to lay down seats for principle.Instead, she has judged that it’s best to sacrifice grandstanding on abortion in this one district, while savaging anti-abortion Americans — and devout Catholics like Mr. Cuellar — as sadists who hate women and promote “forced births” in all 434 others.Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Democrat of New York, was the first Democrat to endorse Ms. Cisneros in her 2020 run for the seat, but even the vocal socialist demurred on the party poohbahs suspending the abortion litmus test in Texas’s 28th congressional district. “Asked why she thought her colleagues’ desire to rid Congress of anti-abortion-rights Republicans didn’t extend to Democratic incumbents,” Politico reports, she replied, “You’ll have to ask them.” Ms. Cisneros is doing her best to draw attention to her opponent’s position, telling reporters, “He could very much be the Joe Manchin of the House,” likening him to the maverick Democrat of West Virginia.She continued that Mr. Cuellar “cannot be the determining vote on the future of reproductive freedoms in this country.” It’s standard verbiage deployed against Republicans. Will it strike its mark on a fellow Democrat?The race will also test if President Trump’s brand is as radioactive as Democrats like to think, with the challenger having branded Mr. Cuellar “Trump’s favorite Democrat.”The whole nation will take notice of Texas-28. If Mr. Cuellar wins renomination, it will be a sign that abortion isn’t the silver bullet Democrats hope it will be in November, casting doubt on their chances of avoiding a midterm bloodbath, holding onto the House and breaking the Senate tie.And the speaker will have handed Republicans who struggle to explain their position on abortion a Teflon shield at last: “I have the same position as Congressman Cuellar, a Democrat Pelosi endorsed. Go throw your insults at them.”

Democrats Back Anti-Abortion Incumbent Over Challenger in Texas

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