A 28-year-old liberal immigration lawyer was headed for a runoff in May with Representative Henry Cuellar, South Texas’s 17-year incumbent, after neither candidate on Tuesday was able to muster 50 percent of the vote in the state’s most closely watched House primary.
The first primaries in what promises to be a grueling midterm season gave indications of battles to come.
For Republican leaders eager to win control of the House, the congressional results were a promising sign that the party establishment can still beat back challenges from the far right. For Democrats, another lesson emerged — progressive activists could pull the party leftward next year, whether or not Democrats still control the House.
In Texas’s 28th district, which stretches from San Antonio to the border region around Laredo, Jessica Cisneros, the immigration lawyer, was narrowly outpaced by Mr. Cuellar, one of the most conservative Democrats left in the House, after losing to him by 3.6 percentage points in the primaries in 2020.
With the race too close to call for much of the evening, Ms. Cisneros had told supporters who gathered in Laredo to not give up. “We don’t let that hope die, because we know we deserve so much better,” she said late Tuesday night.
A Guide to the 2022 Midterm Elections
- In the Senate: Democrats have a razor-thin margin that could be upended with a single loss. Here are the four incumbents most at risk.
- In the House: Republicans and Democrats are seeking to gain an edge through redistricting and gerrymandering.
- Governors’ Races: Georgia’s contest will be at the center of the political universe, but there are several important races across the country.
- Key Issues: Inflation, the pandemic, abortion and voting rights are expected to be among this election cycle’s defining topics.
Ms. Cisneros was backed by the faces of progressive activism, Senator Bernie Sanders and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, as well as Justice Democrats, the insurgent group that has pressed liberals to challenge established House incumbents. It appeared that she was held below 50 percent because another liberal in the race, Tannya Benavides, had just under 5 percent of the vote.
Greg Casar, another progressive activist, easily won the Democratic primary in a strongly liberal district that stretches from Austin to San Antonio, all but guaranteeing his election to the House in November.
“Tonight’s results show voters want elected officials who will take on corporate interests and deliver bold progressive policies for the American people,” said the leaders of the Congressional Progressive Caucus’s political action committee, Representatives Pramila Jayapal of Washington, Mark Pocan of Wisconsin and Jamie Raskin of Maryland.
The Republican story was about the establishment. In the race to replace retiring Representative Kevin Brady in Texas’s eighth district, former Navy SEAL Morgan Luttrell, who was backed by House Republican leadership, had a wide lead over Christian Collins, the hard-right candidate backed by Representatives Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and Madison Cawthorn of North Carolina.
And a newly drawn, heavily Republican district south of Houston will send to Congress Wesley Hunt, an Army veteran with degrees from West Point and Cornell, and the backing of Representative Kevin McCarthy of California, the House Republican leader who aspires to be speaker. Mr. Hunt will fortify the House Republicans’ small but growing number of Black members.
Representative Dan Crenshaw won three quarters of the vote in his redrawn district in the suburbs of Houston, despite far-right opposition. Mr. Crenshaw, an outspoken conservative, had nonetheless drawn a right-wing challenger, Jameson Ellis, after Mr. Crenshaw denounced the lie that the 2020 election was stolen from former President Donald J. Trump. Mr. Ellis tried to label Mr. Crenshaw, a combat veteran who lost an eye in Afghanistan, a “Republican in name only,” or RINO, but mustered only about 15 percent of the vote.
In Texas’ third district, north of Dallas, Representative Van Taylor remained at risk of being forced into a runoff by challengers on his right flank early Wednesday. Those opponents castigated him for his vote to create an independent commission to examine the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.
For Democrats, a victory by Ms. Cisneros would have real repercussions.
Mr. Cuellar, perhaps the last remaining House Democrat who opposes abortion, has run to the right of his party on immigration and border security. But rather than run the issues-focused campaign she ran in 2020, Ms. Cisneros struck a narrative that after 17 years in Washington, the incumbent had become corrupt and captive to special interests, losing touch with the poor community that she personified. Her story was bolstered in January when the F.B.I. launched a still-unexplained raid on Mr. Cuellar’s campaign headquarters and Laredo home.
The 28th district shocked both parties in 2020 when it swung dramatically toward Mr. Trump. Hillary Clinton won heavily Latino Zapata County in the district’s south by more than 30 points in 2016. Then it went to Mr. Trump by about five points. Ms. Clinton’s 60-point margin in Starr County, which is 96 percent Latino, shriveled to a five-point advantage for Joseph R. Biden Jr. in 2020.
Ms. Cisneros has said the Trump swing was an indication that South Texas voters were open to an outside voice after so many years with Mr. Cuellar’s machine. But with a young liberal as the potential Democratic nominee, Republicans would no doubt make a play for the district in November.
Republicans were also facing a runoff to decide their standard-bearer in the district, but the top vote-getter on Tuesday, Cassy Garcia, was considered one of the best candidates available to face Ms. Cisneros. She was the deputy state director for Senator Ted Cruz, Republican of Texas, and a regional field representative for the Texas agriculture commissioner.
Jennifer Medina contributed reporting from Laredo, Texas.
