Incumbent Henry Cuellar (D), Jay Furman (R), and Bailey Cole (L) are running in the general election in Texas’ 28th Congressional District

Incumbent Henry Cuellar (D), Jay Furman (R), and Bailey Cole (L) are running in the general election in Texas’ 28th Congressional District on Nov. 5, 2024.

The election is taking place after Cuellar’s indictment on charges of bribery, money laundering, and acting as an unregistered agent of a foreign government. The Department of Justice charged Cuellar and his wife with 14 criminal counts on May 3, 2024. The indictment said the couple had accepted money from a Mexican bank and from Azerbaijan’s state-owned oil company in exchange for official acts Cuellar carried out as a member of Congress. As of Jul. 30, 2024, jury selection for Cuellar’s trial was scheduled to begin March 31, 2025. In a statement following the indictment, Cuellar said he had not done anything illegal: “Everything I have done in Congress has been to serve the people of South Texas…Before I took action, I proactively sought legal advice from the House Ethics Committee, who gave me more than one written opinion, along with an additional opinion from a national law firm.”

A Democrat has represented the 28th district since it was created following the 1990 census. In the 2022 election, Cuellar defeated Cassy Garcia (R) 56.7% to 43.3%. As of Jul. 17, 2024, The Cook Political Report with Amy Walter and Larry J. Sabato’s Crystal Ball rated the election Lean Democratic and Decision Desk HQ and The Hill and Inside Elections with Nathan L. Gonzales rated it Likely Democratic.

First elected in 2004, Cuellar is an attorney and former state legislator. Cuellar says he is one of the most bipartisan and most educated members of Congress. Cuellar says his “principles are based on the belief that education, family values and hard work should open doors to new opportunities for all Americans.”

Furman is a U.S. Navy veteran. Furman says he is running because after retiring from the Navy and returning to Texas, he was “shocked by our fake borders, lost freedoms, and sky-rocketing prices…bad policies causing problems that are clear and present dangers to South Texan’s safety, freedom, and survival.” Furman says it is “time for Texans of every heritage to hold the line and defend this land from all enemies, foreign and domestic.”

All 435 U.S. House seats are up for election in 2024. Republicans have a 220 to 212 majority with three vacancies. As of June 2024, 45 members of the U.S. House had announced they were not running for re-election.

Daily Kos calculated what the results of the 2020 presidential election in this district would have been following redistricting. Joe Biden (D) would have beaten Donald Trump (R) 52.9%-45.9%.