U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson speaks with attendees at AmericaFest 2025 in Phoenix, Arizona, on Dec. 21, 2025. (Gage Skidmore, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons)
(The Center Square) – U.S. Speaker of the House Mike Johson says that polls about congressional races in South Texas aren’t accurate.
In recent weeks and days, multiple polling companies are reporting that Republicans are losing ground in Texas and in South Texas – a region where Republicans made historic strides with largely Hispanic voters in the last two elections. This election, polling indicates that these gains were lost due to several factors, The Center Square reported.
“Do not believe the polls right now,” Johnson said at a rally in McAllen, Texas, for Republicans running for Congress. “I’m telling you they’re wrong. They’re wrong.”
The polling companies “are over sampling Democrats and they’re underestimating Republicans, as they always do,” he said. “In 21 nights, we’re going to win the Congress.”
Johnson was campaigning for outgoing Republican Webb County Judge Tano Tijerina, who is challenging incumbent Democrat U.S. Rep. Henry Cueller in Congressional District 28.
Tijerina was among many lifelong Democrats who left the Democratic Party during the Biden administration, saying he was committed to “hard work, faith, family, and freedom” and was unashamedly prolife, The Center Square reported.
Webb County and other border counties flipped red in 2024 for the first time in over 100 years, The Center Square reported.
Last December, President Donald Trump pardoned Cueller after he and his wife were indicted on foreign bribery and money laundering charges. Trump has lamented the pardon, criticized Cuellar for not switching to the Republican Party and endorsed Tijerina.
Before heading to a campaign event in Texas earlier this month, Trump said Cuellar was a “disloyal and ungrateful person” and “should be serving a long-term jail sentence with his wife in a top-level penitentiary,” but wasn’t because, Trump said, he “saved” his life.
Cuellar’s brother, Webb County Sheriff Martin Cuellar, was indicted in January on charges of misappropriating taxpayer money in connection to a scheme that allegedly defrauded the sheriff’s office and local school district, The Center Square reported. He maintains his innocence.
Johnson was also campaigning for incumbent U.S. Rep. Monica De La Cruz, endorsed by Trump, who is running for reelection in Texas’ CD 15. She made history in 2022 when she was the first and only Republican elected to represent CD 15 in Texas history. In 2024, she helped Republicans gain large margins in the House and was easily reelected.
De La Cruz’s challenger, Latin singer Bobby Pulido, who has never been elected to office, has had a campaign mired in controversy. Allegations include foreign interference, cartel connections, being anti-law enforcement, longtime connections to a registered sex offender, dressing like a woman and appearing to perform lewd acts in a music video. The Center Square reported.
Johnson was also campaigning for Republican Eric Flores, who is challenging incumbent U.S. Rep. Vicente Gonzales in a newly redistricted CD 34. Trump also endorsed Flores, an Army veteran and former U.S. attorney.
Republicans hold a five-seat majority in the U.S. House. The Cook Political Report has identified more than 30 races that it says have shifted left.
Johnson said there are 22 races that will decide which party wins the U.S. House majority.
This month, he said he will be in 40 districts in 22 states campaigning for Republicans. “I’m taking our message of success everywhere,” he said.
Johnson has previously campaigned in South Texas as has Vice President JD Vance, who was recently in Brownsville.
Both Trump and Vance have campaigned in Texas over the last few months, including Trump speaking at the first ever midterm Republican convention in Dallas. On Wednesday, Vance was in northeast Texas announcing a refinery there will help expand production to reduce gas prices and other costs, The Center Square reported.
While Johnson and others have been focusing on three races in the Rio Grande Valley, one race polling companies have largely ignored is CD 23, the largest border district in Texas. In this open race, Republican Youtuber and gun enthusiast Brandon Herrera is running against Democrat attorney Katy Padilla Stout.
Former Republican U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzales previously held the seat. He was forced to resign earlier this year after lying about affairs he had with female staff, including one who killed herself, and after a House Ethics Committee investigation was launched into him.
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