Is a Tejano Star's Next Stop Congress?

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2:10Bobby Pulido: Bobby Polito, you are here to talk about your congressional run in Texas. But can I begin by talking about something else? I want to talk about one of your songs. Okay. All right. That's a new one. That's a new one. Really? I imagine people ask me about your music all the time. Is that not so? Nobody has asked me about my music since I started running. It's always been politics all the way. This November, Bobby Polito is trying to flip a Republican congressional seat blue. Texas is District 15. That would be reason enough to talk to him, but you cannot talk about Bobby Polito without talking about his music.

2:57Bobby Pulido: Because he was famous way before politics.

3:05Bobby Pulido: Bobby's a Tejano star. This is a song he released years ago, Algundia. Look up the music video, and it's a little funny to watch because it really makes you realize how long we have been talking about the same issues. In it, Bobby plays a day laborer on a construction site. He is dreaming of buying a house, buying a car.

3:39Bobby Pulido: There is this line in the video where one of the guys you're with is like, you see how the laws are these days. If you look Mexican, they'll just check your status and pull you over. And I was like, man, this was a while ago. That was my dad that played that role. My dad's a singer too. And my dad, I told him, will you be in the video? And my dad's the one that's telling me that, right? he's a day laborer in the video, but it's actually my real father. After this bit with his dad at the top of the video, Bobby gets nabbed by immigration officials. But he's playing a bit of a scamp. And the very last shot is Bobby shrugging at the camera and dashing back across the border, still hoping for that better life.

4:23Bobby Pulido: Some people would look at the video and be like, this is a problem. Like our immigration system is literally a joke to people. Like, what would you say to someone who saw it that way? I think what's a joke is how it gets politicized. I feel like it went like from let them all in under, you know, look, let's be honest, right? President Obama did crack down on it. That's a fact. I think he cracked down in the right way, even though it was not something that was very popular to a lot of people. But I think under Biden, it got really out of hand. And I think what you saw was the big difference was the asylum process and how that played out under the Biden administration was very different.

5:20After Trump 1.0, it was like, I mean, And I got to see these 10 cities on the border. I was there with my own eyes. And it was really bad. And it really happened under his watch, right? And so we kind of went from let them all in to kick them all out. And truly, like, neither one of the two things work.

5:44Bobby Pulido: Yeah, I mean, we're talking just a couple days after a Venezuelan man was shot in the back in Austin, Texas, a food delivery worker. It's not your district, but it's your state. And I'm pretty sure that that's not what you imagined when you were writing this song about the American dream. Of course. And look, the day that our American dream dies, we die as a country. I think that's a part of our makeup. That's who we are.

6:12I mean, down here in the Rio Grande Valley, I'm from a place down here that the Rio Grande Valley used to be called the magical Rio Grande Valley. It was a farming community. My dad was a migrant farm worker. So was his dad. I mean, we don't come from generational wealth. Latinos and Hispanics in South Texas are the embodiment of the American dream. And right now it feels like that's under attack because it feels like it's now being more selective to say like, well, the American dream belongs to this group of people, but not to these.

6:47Bobby Pulido: Today on the show, a conversation with Bobby Polito. Is he singing the right tune for Texas? I'm Mary Harris. You're listening to What Next. Stick around.

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9:51Bobby Pulido: You know, I was wondering why you would run for office because you're a pretty, you're a well-known Tejana singer. You probably don't need to do much of anything if you don't want to. Life is pretty good. So why, yeah, why are you? Yeah.

10:11Listen, I was a political science major in college. I was a Texas boy stater in high school. Government and social studies and Texas history were my favorite subjects. I wanted to do this.

10:26Bobby Pulido: I had no idea you were such a nerd. Yeah, yeah, I'm a nerd. And nobody knows because I never really, I never carried that nerdiness or political advocacy into my music. I never mixed it. But I always said my music's for Republicans and Democrats and independents and everybody, right? So I never really went out there. Is it harder to run for Congress or like be a singer? I think I would say, I mean, gosh, that's a great question, Mary.

11:02Bobby Pulido: Both seem very hard to me. Like achieving success in both is like. Both are hard. No doubt. But in music, you got to have, the hard part is you got to actually have the talent to do so. Not just anybody can do it. Right? You look at me like you're incredulous. No, you have that golden voice. Do you know what I mean? Like you, yes. Okay, yeah. You need talent to do it. But like in politics, it's one of the few line of works where they pay people to make you look bad. you know music is is what's true right like like it's no you're right I hadn't thought about it that way and so like music is like they either love you or they're indifferent and it's like okay you know we love your music or I don't next they don't hear it but politics brings in a lot of hate and and so from that end it's it's hard because you know it's hard on your family because your family doesn't like to hear things that they know aren't true being spoken about you.

12:06That's hard on anybody. And, you know, look, politics is very difficult. Flipping a red seat that was a Trump plus 18 is damn right like madness to run in a district like that, especially in an environment.

12:28Bobby Pulido: That's your district, by the way. That's my district, right? And you know, when I first told people I was thinking of running, I got a lot of, are you crazy? Like, are you crazy? And I'm like, no, I'm not crazy. And yes, I think I can win. I mean, let me put some numbers behind it. You're running in Texas's 15th district. Yeah. As you said, it is a district that Donald Trump won by 18 points in 2024. Yeah. Redistricting may have made it a smidge Trumpier by some estimates. No, I get that the same. I mean, the issue is that some have said it's like 1 % more, but it relies on 80 % of the populace is Latino.

13:10Bobby Pulido: So it also relies on the Latino vote remaining in the GOP's favor. And my assumption is that part of the reason you got into this race is that you were beginning to see signs that that was not going to hold. And I am curious what those first signs were to you. I believed it wasn't going to hold. Listen, I was talking to lots of people during this cycle, even the cycle before, like as it was going right since 23. Lots of my friends were voting red. And listen, I've always been a blue dog Democrat. Listen, this is what the blue dog is right there. I was going to ask about that. You always considered yourself a Democrat.

13:55Bobby Pulido: I always have. Because you have all these things that are like, don't read as Democrat. Like you're known for long range shooting. You actually, you named your eldest son, Revington after the rifle. So it's just, it's not like traditionally coded Democrat. So that's interesting to me. That's based on the Democrat, on a newer version of what a Democrat is. See, I never changed. I've been the same type. Like all the people that used to vote Democrat are like me. And they started voting red. And when I would talk to them, The one thing that jumped out at me was what did what they didn't like is the leftward shift on a lot of Democratic policies that turned them off.

14:40It wasn't that the Republicans. Oh, geez. Like guns. Listen, look, look. We're in South Texas on the border. Guns, especially like out of the Rio Grande Valley, which my district covers 11 counties and 10 of the other counties other than the Rio Grande Valley are all rural. All of them. Like firearms are not viewed the same way in the city as they are in the country. You know?

15:13Bobby Pulido: How are they seen differently? as sport and protection or? Both. Tell me. Both. It's an independence. Look, when you're out in the country, first of all, there's no traffic. You're not dealing with a lot of people to begin with. You can actually drive faster if you want to and not, you know, I mean, I'm sure, I'm not advocating for speeding, but I'm saying like, you know, you're not bound by confines of traffic where you have to, you know, have a stoplight at every block. It's just, it's a different way of life. And yes, there's less things to do, right? Like when you're around the country, like, you know, sometimes a lot of in these rural areas, the thing where you go out the most to get dressed is to go to church on Sunday.

15:59And so a lot of the sports that you practice, whether that be hog hunting or coyote hunting or, you know, like, or just hunting is, they're associated with firearms. I mean, like down here in the Rio Grande Valley, we don't have any local elected Republicans. And the number one fundraiser for Democratic events are skeet shoots. I can't make this up. Right. So you shoot and there's sporting clays. And so like rifles, gun sports is a way of life. And people, I know if you're people in the city, it's really hard for you to understand that. But there is a big, big break with over the years. You know, I saw an old interview with Chuck Schumer talking about, well, we'll take the city vote over the rural votes because I'll take those two to one.

16:50That was a huge mistake. I mean, I'm insulted by a guy by hearing him say that because if I look down the road, Mary, like in 2030, California, New York are going to lose congressional seats to Texas and Florida. And because people are are moving out to the rural areas because it's cheaper to live. And so, yeah. So like, as a Democrat, if we're going to want to make people's lives better and not let these batshit crazy people like Trump, you know, get in there and his enablers, we're going to have to moderate a little bit on some issues to understand rural folk a little better. And, you know, and a lot of it happen too well i'll tell you what what happened was like when the green new deal was promoted right like oil and gas business right like it's the best it's probably one of the best paying jobs in my district and so it got really excuse me really politicized where it was like they're gonna take away your job like that's how that's how it was being sold the democrats were going to take away your jobs.

18:06You're not going to be able to provide for your family. And so.

18:10Bobby Pulido: So when did you see it turn back? Because you're saying you saw a lot of your friends kind of flip or maybe just express more sort of GOP coded opinions and express that in terms of how they were voting. So when did you see that change back to maybe thinking there is an opportunity here? It wasn't a switch. I mean, listen, the thing is, I was talking to people and they would say, look Bobby I'm voting Republican but you're my kind of Democrat like I would vote for you because you're not batshit crazy because listen they painted Democrats as very radical and it worked like extremely worked I just want to say I'm not batshit crazy and I probably disagree with you about some stuff I don't think I don't know guns in the green new deal I don't think You're batshit crazy.

18:56Right? Yeah. I'm telling you, the people that shifted, right? I'm telling you what they were thinking, right?

19:06Bobby Pulido: How much did immigration play a role? Because it's like, even back in February, I was looking at Politico, for instance, writing about your district specifically, and talking about how Monica de la Cruz, Republican, currently your opponent, how she was all of a sudden like, oh, no, I need to moderate my opinions here because people in her district were upset. Yeah. Well, here's the thing. Immigration is really a two-tiered issue down here, right? One thing is the border, and the other thing is enforcements in the streets. So I'll explain why there's a difference. Is the border got really chaotic with asylum seekers.

19:49Now, the diaspora in the Rio Grande Valley and South Texas in general is Mexican, right? It's Mexican-American. Now, Mexican-Americans cannot claim political asylum because you're on a neighboring country, right? So historically, most of the people here, their grandfather or their great-grandfather crossed the border illegally, undocumented, and they ran away from the border patrol, and then they had to figure out life on their own, right? And it was like, hey, I got to cut yards. I got to do whatever I can to provide for my family. That's how the spirit of most of the people here became. What happened is -

20:31Bobby Pulido: You've talked about your grandfather being like, I was so proud I never took a penny from the government. So you're talking about the same kind of spirit. That's exactly right. It was more like, you've done your homework, Mary. Wow. Yeah, you have. I'm impressed. So yes, that was the spirit of my grandfather, right? And that's the spirit of this region. It was like, hey, we're proud people. Probably our forte is that we work really hard and we'll figure it out. What you started seeing is when the asylum process started getting overwhelmed, it was catch and release. And that catch and release was very, very, very, very different because what they started doing is they would say, okay, instead now, an asylum seeker would not run away from a border patrol agent.

21:23They would run to them and say, I want to declare political asylum. It was backlogged. So they would fly them in country to wherever they wanted to go. And that was viewed. And I'm, and I want to make it clear. It's not my view, but it's the sentiment that I was hearing very often from everybody is I see everybody here at the airport flying wherever the hell they want. My grandfather didn't do that. My grandfather couldn't do that. And it really pissed people off. And it became -

21:54Bobby Pulido: Well, a lot of Latinos at the border also work in enforcement too, right? That's also true. That's also a very, very, very, very true point. You know, the Border Patrol has continually gotten funded, right? So there's a lot of people that work in a Border Patrol and law enforcement. And they were really angry with the Biden administration. I mean, and so that really, really had a lot to do with why the shift happened so big. And people are like, look, man, now here's what's happening now with the enforcement in the streets. Is now I got Republicans that go, my gardener's gone. I don't have anybody else to do this.

22:35And now I'm trying to find somebody else and I can't find anybody to cut my yard. Right. Right. Or to clean my house or to do or like or or or or in this case to build houses like there was a housing bill that Trump refused to sign that went in because after the 10 day period, it became law. That makes no, no, no change down here if you don't have a workforce, because like. Historically, the people that there's not a building in the Rio Grande Valley that was built without immigrant labor, not one. I don't care what anybody wants to tell me. I will argue that, you know, to the day I die.

23:16Bobby Pulido: It's interesting to hear you talk because I think that a lot of people might make the assumption that a Latino population might look at images of people on the street like being sort of captured by ice. You know, what we're seeing now and have a very emotional reaction to it, which I'm sure they are as well. But you're really framing a lot of the concerns as economic. It's both. It's both. It's both. And I will tell you, I've led with the humanitarian thing, okay? Like, it breaks my heart to see the things that are happening. And here's the other thing, Mary. People don't really understand us down here, but the Rio Grande Valley is a lot of mixed status families.

23:58and recently a friend of mine, three-time Trump voter, 65 years old, eighth generation Texan from an oil and glass family. I was there years ago when he met his now wife, who was an immigrant. They came over. She overstayed her visa. They met. They fell in love. They have an eight-year-old American daughter. He's trying to get her her papers. And there was a technicality in there that she had crossed over and not said it. And it's getting deported. And my friend is 65 years old, is going to have to leave the country. And potentially, like he says, potentially die in a country that's not mine. the thing that people are not really taking into account is it's affecting everybody here.

25:00This is not an us versus them. It's affecting our community. Listen, we depended on tourism here a lot. Tourism is down. Nobody wants to come anymore. You know, I'm a singer and everybody asks me, you get tired of people asking you for a picture or an autograph in a restaurant? And I'm like, no, that's a good problem to have. I'd be worried if they didn't want a picture or an autograph in a restaurant. Right? The day our country doesn't become a place desirable for people to come over is the day that we're doing something wrong. Not the opposite.

25:38Bobby Pulido: Yeah. You made health care a big issue, too. Absolutely. Not just immigration. Not just, you know, you've said for your constituents it's huge. It is. I don't have insurance. How are you hearing that from them? I don't have insurance. You don't have health insurance? I do not have health insurance. No. Why? I made the decision that I did not want to feed a monster that I despise.

26:09I'm ashamed to say this, but I go get my health care. I've gotten my health care in Mexico, across the border, because it's outrageously expensive here.

26:19Bobby Pulido: How would you try to solve that once you got to Congress? Listen, I've heard the president on several occasions talk about how health insurance companies and health insurance companies and actual pharmacy benefit managers have too much power. And I applaud that. And I'm like, okay, so what are you going to do about it? I think it's really terrible what they're doing. doctors are no longer allowed to be doctors. They have to get permission from a health insurance specialist to give out medication. Like, it's just, it's... But it's interesting because you see some politicians, like, you look at the Michigan Senate race, right?

27:11Bobby Pulido: Abdul El-Sayed. He's really framing it as like Medicare for all and trying to find even people who voted for Trump because of that, because he thinks we're at a breaking point. We need to do something big. It sounds like you're in a situation, even personally, where you feel like something big needs to happen. So I'm kind of curious what you would want it to be. It's just how your definition of big is, right? I mean, like a slogan's a slogan. Enacting something and doing it is not easy, right? And it doesn't come for free. And the question is like everything, right? how are we going to, what are we, plans are plans and everything like that.

27:50It's like, what are you going to do to fix it? What are you going to do? I'm running to be in Congress. I'm going to be one person out of 435 congressmen. And I promise you, everybody has a plan. So it's how you're able to go and work with other people in there and to try to find something that works. And my whole thing is like, I'm not expecting healthcare to be free. it just shouldn't cost 15 times more than what it costs in a country. And mind you, I'm not going to like crappy hospitals. I'm going to good hospitals. And it's way cheaper. Why can we not provide an affordable option to people?

28:34And I go back to this. It's because the health insurance companies have too much power. but it actually goes before that, even before that. We need to do something about Citizens United legislatively. It was terrible. And until we fix that - Money in politics. We're not going to be able to fix anything. And the thing is, I don't blame anybody that goes out to raise money to be able to compete in an election against big money because the odds are you get waxed. And so we need to change.

29:15Bobby Pulido: You give yourself room to negotiate here, but I think your pitch is like you're living the reality. I am living it, of course. Of course.

29:28Bobby Pulido: We'll be right back after a quick break.

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31:23We'll be right back. Grainger, for the ones who get it done.

31:34Bobby Pulido: I don't think we can get out of this interview without me talking about some stuff you'd rather avoid talking about. Like over the summer, there have been a ton of headlines, few headlines, about old tweets where you used homophobic slurs and also about your association with a bandmate who's a known sex offender. and a bad sex offender, convicted of sexual conduct with an eight-year-old. Yep. How do you explain that to voters? Because I imagine you are being asked about it again and again. I'm not. Really? I swear to you. The only people that ask me about that are journalists. People like me. I've never been, listen, I've gotten in front of 25 ,000 people since I've been campaigning that we've gotten their data, right?

32:24So this is not just a hyperbolic Trump number. It's the real people that I've gotten in front of. We've done 380 town halls. Nobody's ever asked me about that. And I think - But I find it so hard to believe

32:38Bobby Pulido: in the age of the Epstein files. Here's the thing. Here's the thing, Mary. I've answered it and Republicans have slow dripped it in order to throw me off of my game. Like, this is what they do, right? So they won't say, oh, there's this joke, all these tweets of jokes. No, it's this joke. And then they'll drip another joke. And then they'll drip another joke to create a narrative that there's a scandal. Now they're 12 years old. They'll keep it going, in other words. Of course, to throw me off my game. Like, that's their strategy. You know, but when I tell you that this guy that committed this atrocity, this heinous thing, was there was 20 years where I didn't see the guy, right?

33:23Like he worked with me early, early, early, and he did this in that 20-year period, and I didn't know about it. But they don't talk about that. And then if I'm, you know, there's that old adage of you're explaining, you're losing. So like we just got to the point where it's like people are asking me about their health care. They're asking about affordability. What are we going to do to make life more affordable? And so it seems... I think I... Yeah, go ahead. And so it got to the point where you're like, man, I'll tell you this, Mary. People know me. I have a brand. I've had 30 years of a musical career with tabloids that cover me with magazines and tabloid TV shows.

34:14I never had a scandal. Never.

34:17Bobby Pulido: It sounds like the tabloid's got nothing on a Republican operative.

34:23I guess.

34:24Bobby Pulido: I mean, I guess I would say this, which is I can understand you, you know, like Politico ran a headline saying Bobby Polito is sick and tired of apologizing, which I'm not sure if that's true or not, but that was the vibe that they were explaining that you have. But I am curious how these allegations and kind of going through this summer of the drip, drip drip of allegations has changed how you think about your run, how you run your campaign and how you might run an office in Washington. Like how, has it been a moment for you to like reflect on that and be like, huh, here's what I would do. No, here's a different choice I would make.

35:00No, no, Mary. On the contrary. I think you just not, I don't think you could see two different campaigns. Look, there is a sentiment around here. People are tired of Trumpism. Like my opponent tried to call me a quinceanera singer on my primary night and we flipped it on her. We're not running the kind of campaign that they're running. They're running right now a campaign of fear, a negative. I'm not running that kind of a campaign. We're running a campaign of talking about going to work for people and an inspirational campaign on trying to get back to that America that we know exists but has recently been blunted.

35:46So, and don't believe me, we see it on the ground, but the polling shows it too. People are exhausted with those kinds of politics. Now, I get it, right? Like, right now we live in a clickbait society, right? I mean, I don't know about your interview that we're doing here, but most of the things on YouTube have these really scandalous headlines to try to get you to click because that's how they monetize it. That's the nature of the beast. But I think people are tired of that. I really do.

36:23Bobby Pulido: I wanted to make sure I told you a funny story before we got off the line, which is about how I first heard your name. um i first heard about who you are and this is going to show a lot about who i am which is a new yorker very far away from the texas border area but i first heard your name three years ago way before you were running for congress so i'm i'm proud of that um i was doing a series of interviews uh with lgbtq folks uh including a drag king from austin texas do you want to know what their drag name was? You can tell me, sure. Bobby Pedrito, which rhymes with Pulido. Yeah, but it means Bobby Rotten, basically.

37:11Bobby Pulido: Yes, of course. And it's pretty good. I got to say, it's pretty good. And when I interviewed this drag king, they loved you. They had all these memories of your music at quinceañeras, at carne asadas. They described you as what they wanted to be when they were on stage, kind of like a backstreet boy, a Tejano backstreet boy before there were backstreet boys. Yeah. How every woman in their family loved you. And that was why when I heard you were running for Congress months ago, I was like, I got to talk to this guy because I I was like, this person has the cultural cred that could translate on the campaign trail.

37:54Yes. It's hard for anybody to understand it if you're not here. Right? Like, or you know that our culture. And that culture, that culture is not just South Texas, Mary. It's everywhere. It's in El Paso. You know what I'm saying? Houston has a heavy, heavy hand. It's in Austin. It's in Austin. It's in Houston. It's in Dallas. Yeah, on my mother's side, I'm eight-generation Texan. And years ago, I remember when Republicans made a play on rural America. And they used Fox News to do so when they had their freedom concerts. That's when they actually Dixie Chicked the Dixie Chicks. Oh. Oh, yeah. And they used to have their series of freedom concerts and they'd have like country music artists go and play and stuff.

38:52And there was a very smart of them because culture is a powerful, powerful thing. It just is. And many times it transcends political parties or political ideologies. And so -

39:13Bobby Pulido: evolves too right like part of why part of why i bring this up is just like it does ish the right like well so the conversation around sexuality and like queer issues in texas has been so fraught in this cycle right like you see james tallarico who i know is a friend of yours yeah senate candidate there democrat and he's you know backing away from stuff he's said previously that might have been seen as supporting the queer community and here's this drag king in Austin who's like love love Bobby Polito love love him I guess is there anything as a candidate you would say to your Austin namesake right now like I just feel like it's a it's a funny moment for someone like that who is Tejano and also queer and also you're very clearly you said you're running as a Mexican redneck like I'm just curious how you would approach someone like that I want to get to a, I think the goal should always be for everybody to be able to live the life that they want to live and be treated equally.

40:18And I love everybody. And I don't pass judgment on anybody. I live the life the way I want to live it. And if that life is different than other people's lives and their lives, the way they live their life doesn't affect me, I don't care. I love everybody.

40:36Bobby Pulido: Yeah. And, and, You know, it's just, I hope that we can get to a point where we just all just live our lives the way we want to live them. Isn't that what freedom's all about? And I don't believe in passing judgment on anybody. I believe in accepting people for how they are. You know, and that's just the way I see it. Do I speak in LGBTQ terms? No, I don't. Um, I'll tell you, I'm not the most versed on that, but I respect that if that's people's lives and choices and they want to do that, like I'm okay with that. Right. Like that's, that doesn't affect, that doesn't affect me or my kids or my family or anybody else.

41:27Um, at the end of the day, we all got to live together and we all want to live together in harmony and not with this division that we've been just like, it's, it's just seems like, you know, Obama was the last president that people actually wanted to go vote for. It just feels like since then, we've been voting against and against. And I'm tired of that. I don't want to be somebody that somebody goes to vote against. I want somebody to be somebody that people vote for. And I think that we got to get back to that point. Because like, look, the Woodstock and the Peace and Love era came after this turmoil of war.

42:05I feel like we've kind of been in that turmoil of war, but it's a civil war. And it's not the civil war like it was back in the day with the North versus the South. It's just a more civil war where we're at war with our neighbors over because somebody told us that, you know, the other side was evil. And people that voted the other way were bad people. And I'm just trying to not play that. And I know, and you know what, Look, maybe it's not going to help me win an election. I'm okay with that too. But I'm not going to contribute to that same type of ugliness that I loathe so much and be that part of that.

42:47I don't want to. I refuse to. And that's why I'm running, and that's why I think that we're resonating with people.

43:01Bobby Pulido: Bobby Polito I am really grateful for your time thank you for coming on the show thank you Mary Bobby Polito is a singer who is also running for congress in Texas's 15th district and that's our show what next is produced by Evan Campbell Madeline Thames Ducharme and Patrick Fort Paige Osborne is the senior supervising producer of what next and what next tbd Milo Bell is the executive producer of podcasts here at Slate. Ben Richmond is the senior director of podcast operations. And I'm Mary Harris. Go check me down on Blue Sky. I'm at Mary Harris. Thanks for listening. Catch you back here next time.

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