Jessica Cisneros Once Interned For Texas Rep. Henry Cuellar, Now She's Running Against Him
TEXAS (CNN) — It's the old guard versus the new.
Human rights and immigration attorney Jessica Cisneros, 26, once worked as an intern for Democratic Texas Rep. Henry Cuellar's office.
Now, she's running against her former boss, seeking to unseat him in the state's 28th District.
As an intern for Cuellar in 2014, she mainly handled constituent relations and press inquiries, her campaign told CNN.
Cisneros has accused Cuellar of representing Trump interests rather than his district, which Hillary Clinton carried by nearly 20 points in 2016.
"Cuellar is Trump's favorite Democrat," Cisneros' campaign website says. She says that Cuellar is beholden to corporate donors, holds an "A" rating from the NRA and frequently votes with Republicans.
Cuellar, who has served eight terms in the House, is a member of the Blue Dog Coalition, who identify as fiscally responsible and centrist Democrats.
Cisneros officially launched her campaign earlier this month with a platform that calls for ending family separations at the border, free public college, gun control reform, the Green New Deal, Medicare for All and a promise to not accept corporate and lobbyist donations.
The young challenger is backed by Justice Democrats, a progressive advocacy group that supported freshman Democratic lawmaker Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in her stunning upset against high-ranking former Democrat Rep. Joe Crowley in 2018.
(The-CNN-Wire™ & © 2019 Cable News Network, Inc., a Time Warner Company contributed to this report. All rights reserved.)
