Richard Raymond, Don McLaughlin, And The Cuellar Family

From safe blue seats to GOP handouts.

We’ve entered a new era of Lone Star Left politics. We’re going to call this the “Scorched Earth Era.” Because there is no room left in Texas for the oil-grubbing, billionaire-sucking Republicans, and the so-called Democrats who enable them. However, in some parts of Texas, some people like to call themselves Democrats, but when it comes to hurting working people and giving handouts to the wealthy, they vote lockstep with Republicans. Let’s get into it.

Representative Richard Raymond is a Republican who calls himself a Democrat. The only reason I can figure out why he does that is that at one point in time, Webb County and Lardeo were blue.

However, far-right donors have been pouring money into the pockets of Democratic politicians down there, like Richard Raymond and Henry Cuellar, for so long that those guys flat out forgot which team they played for.

Even when looking at Richard Raymond’s voting record, there’s nothing Democratic about him. Here are just some of the bills he voted on this last legislative session:

• SB8: Forces local sheriff’s office to enforce immigration and assist in deportation efforts.

• SB12: Banning diversity and equity in public schools.

• SB13: The Republicans’ latest book-banning bill.

• SB379: Stigmatizes and punishes people receiving SNAP benefits.

• SB17: The racist law that targets Asians from owning property.

• SB10: Would force every child in Texas to follow a state religion (already been blocked by courts).

• SB36: Establishes a Homeland Security division in DPS to militarize the border further.

• SB24: Requires Red Scare Era propaganda to be included in every public school.

• SB3: Bans THC in Texas.

While we could go on, I would urge everyone to look up Richard Raymond’s voting record and see that he votes along with Republicans 99.99% of the time. He’s even been known to brag about being a “proud Conservative.”

The Republicans love him and his rubber stamp.

What about Richard Raymond’s district?

This is a young, poor, working-class, overwhelmingly Hispanic border district. Families are large, incomes are low, poverty is high, and many residents are bilingual or Spanish-dominant. Education levels trail the rest of Texas, and much of the workforce depends on border commerce, trucking, and government/education jobs.

In other words, it’s a Democratic district by population, culture, and economics. Yet its longtime representative, Richard Raymond, votes like a Republican, siding with big donors and oil lobbyists over the overwhelmingly working-class, Latino families he’s supposed to represent. That disconnect is the heart of what’s driving the border’s low turnout or seemingly move to the right.

Because when you look at Richard Raymond’s Congressional counterpart in Laredo, Henry Cuellar, the situation is nearly identical.

Congressman Cuellar has long been known as a rubber stamp for billionaires and oil executives. His voting record tells us the same story as Richard Raymond’s. Both of them have made a career out of siding with Republicans to screw over working people in their own backyard while handing out gifts to the wealthy and well-connected. And while they cozy up to oil money, corporate PACs, and right-wing donors, their districts are stuck with low wages, high poverty, underfunded schools, and families struggling to get by.

It’s not that South Texas voters are choosing Republicans. It’s that the so-called Democrats they’ve been stuck with are already governing like Republicans, and the people they represent are paying the price for it.

Districts like these are not drifting red because voters suddenly fell in love with Greg Abbott or Ted Cruz. They’re staying home.

When both the “Democrat” and the Republican are offering the same corporate handouts, the same border militarization, and the same betrayals of working-class families, what’s the point of showing up? This isn’t a crisis of culture. It’s a crisis of representation. Until Democrats in South Texas stop selling out their own communities, the people here will keep being screwed, and the GOP will keep laughing all the way to the bank.

Let’s take a look at the voter turnout for House District 42 (Richard Raymond’s District):

• 2024: 29%

• 2022: 25%

Now, Raymond can say that he alligns his votes with billionaires and oil executives all day long because his disctrict somehow mandates it, but the truth is his district barely votes. Probably because they haven’t had anyone working for working class people in office for many years.

Richard Raymond is in a safe blue seat, there’s no reason in the world why that seat shouldn’t go to a true Democratic candidate who cares about working people and wants to bring that district good paying jobs, access to healthcare, and communities safe from Trump’s brownshirts.

Richard Raymond needs a primary challenger like yesterday.

Then, there is his entaglement with the Cuellar family.

There are a few families in South Texas who hold a lot of money and a lot of power, the Cuellar family being one of them. Richard Raymond is a family friend and is alleged to be in a long-term relationship with Henry Cuellar’s sister, Rosie Cuellar.

This came to my attention during the 2024 election, when multiple people from the Laredo area reached out to me and filled me in on that detail after I published “Rosie Cuellar’s Attack on Texas Democrats.”

I reached out to Richard Raymond’s office for comment and got no response.

During the 2024 election, after a long time, Democrat Tracy King retired from HD80, there was a Democratic primary election between Henry Cuellar’s sister, Rosie, and Cecilia Castellano.

After Castellano won the primary election, Rosie Cuellar appeared on a series of attack ads by the extremist Republican Don McLaughlin, attacking the Democrat in the race.

It was mind-blowing, especially now, looking back at all of the horrible things Texas Republicans have done since then, and Don McLaughlin has been a part of it every step of the way. Rosie Cuellar is a “Democrat” in the same way that Richard Raymond and her brother are “Democrats.”

Their district never beats a 30% turnout, and as long as the far-right keeps funneling money into their pockets, they’ll continue to vote to hurt the very Texans that sent them to office in the first place, all under the guise of having a (D) by their name.

It is rumored that when Henry Cuellar goes to prison for his indictment of bribery and acting as a foreign agent, Richard Raymond intends to run for his seat in Congress.

Ken Paxton helped Don McLaughlin get elected.

Last year, Paxton’s office carried out raids in Atascosa, Frio, and Bexar Counties, targeting elderly LULAC volunteers, respected Democratic activists, and even Cecilia Castellano, the very Democrat who had just beaten Rosie Cuellar in the HD80 primary.

According to Ken Paxton’s office, these raids came because of allegations from the 81st Judicial District Attorney, Audrey Gossett Louis.

Here is DA Louis with Governor Greg Abbott and Don McLaughlin at one of his campaign events.

If Rosie Cuellar, not a Democrat, helped a racist, corporate-owned, morally-bankrupt person like Don McLaughlin get elected. And Richard Raymond, who is allegedly in a relationship with Rosie Cuellar, who votes like a Republican and takes Republican money, the world probably deserves to know:

• What, if any, involvement did Richard Raymond have in getting Don McLaughlin, a far-right extremist Republican, elected, stripping away more representation from Democrats in Texas?

Don McLaughlin’s seat (HD80) should be blue.

And it could be an easy win back for Democrats with the right candidate and the right ground game. Republicans only had a 4-point advantage in HD80 in 2021, but as we have seen too often in too many places in Texas, turnout sank this race for Democrats. (No doubt that evil-doers like Ken Paxton had their hands in it.)

Let’s take a look at the voter turnout for House District 80:

• 2024: 38%

In a presidential year. HD80 and HD42 are right next to each other. And Henry Cuellar’s district (TX28)? Runs right on top of both of them.

HD80 is a majority-Hispanic, rural, and small-town border district stretching across Atascosa, Frio, and surrounding counties. It’s young, working-class, bilingual, and deeply tied to agriculture, trucking, and service industries. Poverty is high, incomes are low, and educational attainment lags the rest of Texas.

Does Laredo really need more oil-soaked career politicians who slap a (D) next to their name while voting like Republicans?

What this city and South Texas need is a strong, unapologetic, Hispanic progressive movement. One that fights for the working people who built these communities, not the billionaires who exploit them.

Imagine it. Three candidates, one in HD42, one in HD80, and one in TX28, are running as a united front. A tag-team campaign that speaks directly to the needs of the people, better wages, healthcare, schools that teach the truth, safe communities free from Paxton’s raids and Abbott’s militarization. A movement that says, “We’re not going to let turnout sink below 30% anymore. We’re going to knock doors, we’re going to organize, and we’re going to give people something worth voting for.”

Because the truth is, this isn’t about ethnicity, culture, or background. It’s about representation. These districts are overwhelmingly Hispanic, overwhelmingly working-class, and overwhelmingly ignored by the politicians who claim to represent them. Criticizing Richard Raymond, Henry Cuellar, or Rosie Cuellar is not an attack on the community, they are the ones attacking their own community every time they vote with Republicans to hand out favors to the wealthy while families at home struggle to pay rent and feed their kids.

South Texas is ready for a new generation of leaders. Not machine politicians, not corporate Democrats, but candidates who will walk into the Legislature and Congress and fight like hell for the people who sent them there. That’s how we break the cycle of betrayal and low turnout. That’s how we make HD42, HD80, and TX28 not just Democratic in name, but Democratic in practice, champions for working Texans, not rubber stamps for Republicans.

It’s time for South Texas to rise up with a progressive slate of candidates who tag-team the election, speak with one voice, and put the needs of working families first. That’s how you scorch the earth. That’s how you win.

• November 4: Constitutional/TX18/SD09 Election

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