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Trump’s action is just the latest sign he is largely checked out in terms of helping Republicans after he’s gone, Eric Garcia writes
Thursday 04 December 2025 00:12 GMTComments
CloseTexas Democratic Rep. Cuellar pardoned by Trump
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Republicans did not even get to breathe a sigh of relief after Republican Matt Van Epps held Tennessee’s 7th district in a special election when Trump blew up their chances at flipping another seat.
On Wednesday, he pardoned Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Texas), saying that the Biden administration investigated him because he criticized the then-president’s policies on the border.
Reminder, Cuellar had been indicted, allegedly for taking nearly $600,000 from an Azerbaijani-controlled company and a Mexican bank. This came as part of Trump’s attempts to erase Biden’s legacy and, in fact, get back at his predecessor for what Trump perceives as slights.
open image in galleryTrump’s pardon of Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-TX) caused many on the Capitol to scratch heads. (Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)But the 28th district, which Cuellar occupies, is the exact type of district that Republicans have hoped to flip. Located right on the border of Mexico, the heavily Latino 28th district voted for Trump in 2024.
The pardon came just two days after House Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters cockily that Republicans would grow their majority. On Wednesday, he brushed off concerns that this would make the 28th harder to flip.
“That has no effect on us at all,” Johnson told reporters. “That’s a very competitive district and we’ll have a strong candidate in that district and we’ll win it.”
Cuellar has always occupied an uncomfortable spot for a lot of Democrats. As Trump said, he regularly criticized Biden about the border.
But as a Texan from the heavily Hispanic Laredo, Texas, he was one of the few Democrats who opposed abortion left in the House. But given the conservative lean of voters in the district, Democrats continued to back him, arguing he was the only type of Democrat who could win there.
open image in galleryHouse Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) campaigned for Matt Van Epps while Trump literally phoned in an apperance. (Getty Images)That triggered progressives to support primary challenges to him in 2020 and 2022, which failed. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), who campaigned for one of his challengers, did not comment.
“I still need to kind of look into the whole situation,” she told The Independent.
The pardon also puts former Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who had backed Cuellar in the past, in a tough spot. She was set to be a speaker at a virtual fundraiser. But according to a source familiar, she would no longer be participating, and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries would be participating instead.
That may explain why two old-school Republicans seemed happy about his pardon.
“I've known Henry a long time, worked with him on a number of things,” Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) told The Independent. “He's probably one of the last Blue Dogs left in the house and but obviously Congress doesn't have any role to play in pardons.”
Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas), who is retiring, said that Cuellar was likely always going to win his race, which is likely true given the backlash among Latino voters against Republicans in last month’s election.
Cuellar, for his part, told reporters he would not change parties, a throwback to an old saying in the Texas legislature, “if you can't drink their whiskey, s**** their women, take their money, and vote against 'em anyway, you don't belong in office.”
The pardon reveals a larger problem for Republicans: Trump is largely checked out when it comes to the party’s long-term welfare.
He made a full-court press to have Republicans redraw congressional districts mid-decade, not to help the House GOP but to help him continue having the majority.
But that backfired tremendously since California passed Proposition 50 to allow Democrats to draw five new Democratic-leaning seats, which could cost some loyal GOP soldiers to lose their jobs.
And in Tennessee, Trump did not hold a rally that was typically a staple of his first presidency for Van Epps, but literally phoned into a campaign appearance that Johnson made and held a tele-rally.
It all worked out in the end and Van Epps won, but only by about 9 points in a district Trump won by 22 points just a year before.
If the results in Tennessee repeat themselves elsewhere, many Republicans usually considered safe could find themselves out of a job next year. And it will largely be because Trump let them lose.
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