Indicted Democratic Rep. Henry Cuellar wins reelection in Texas
AUSTIN, Texas — U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Texas, won an 11th term early Wednesday despite facing a federal indictment over charges that he took foreign bribes.
Cuellar, a 20-year congressional veteran who is considered among the most conservative Democrats in the U.S. House, defeated Republican retired naval officer Jay Furman in a district anchored by the border city of Laredo in South Texas, The Associated Press projected.
A proven vote-getter who was elected to the Texas House eight times before winning his first election to Congress in 2004, Cuellar was made vulnerable after a federal indictment in May accused him and his wife of accepting bribes and money laundering.
Prosecutors accused the Cuellars of taking about $600,000 from a company tied to the Azerbaijan government and a bank headquartered in Mexico City. The bribes, according to the indictment, were laundered through shell companies owned by Imelda Cuellar.
The payments began in at least December 2014 and continued through at least November 2021, according to the indictment. Cuellar previously served as co-chair of the Congressional Azerbaijan Caucus.
The Cuellars have been slapped with charges related to bribery, wire fraud, money laundering and acting as foreign agents. The charges together carry decades of prison time if they are convicted.
The Cuellars have insisted that they are innocent of the charges, but Furman had run late-campaign ads accusing Cuellar of using his office “to enrich himself and empower cartels.”
Contributing: Bayliss Wagner and Marley Malenfant, Austin-American Statesman; Ken Tran, Paste BN