Texas Border Business
By Roberto Hugo González
Dr. Ada Cuellar, an emergency room physician, law student, and working mother, has launched a campaign for Congress in Texas’s 15th Congressional District. A Democrat originally from Weslaco and now based in Harlingen, Cuellar filed her candidacy with the Federal Election Commission on July 17, 2025, and will face incumbent Republican Rep. Monica De La Cruz in the November 2026 general election.
“I’ve been practicing as an ER doctor since 2009, after completing my residency at Temple University Hospital in Philadelphia,” Cuellar said. “I moved back home because I wanted to serve my community, and I’ve been here ever since.” She trained at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston before returning to South Texas to build her career.
In addition to medicine, Cuellar is completing her final semester of law school at Syracuse University through a hybrid program. “I started law school in 2022,” she explained. “It’s something I had considered for a long time because I’ve always been interested in health policy. I’ve been able to combine telemedicine work, fewer ER shifts, and my studies so I can make it all work while raising my 11-year-old daughter.”
Cuellar’s path to politics began with personal frustration over what she views as ineffective representation. “I don’t feel that people like Monica De La Cruz are really smart and serious people, and we need smart and serious people to make change,” she said. She recalled that her brother Nathan, an electrician in Weslaco, encouraged her to run after hearing her express repeated concerns. “He told me, ‘Why don’t you run?’ And that really pushed me to think seriously about it.”
Her policy priorities are rooted in her medical background. “The big thing for me is I think we need to be able to buy into Medicare,” Cuellar said. “A lot of people are upset and sometimes focusing on the wrong people because they can’t afford healthcare. But if they were able to buy into Medicare, they could have an affordable plan, with a low deductible and low copay. That would be amazing.”
Cuellar also emphasized the need to expand healthcare infrastructure in the Rio Grande Valley, including the region’s medical training resources. She expressed disappointment with the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley School of Medicine, which currently enrolls about 50 to 55 students. “I also want a county hospital in Hidalgo County,” she said. “We also need the medical school to get stronger or make another medical school, because I don’t understand why we don’t have 200 seats a year. With the number of people that we have and the pathology here, we can definitely support a larger medical school.” She added that what troubles her most is that staff have left the program, which she believes undermines its stability and potential.
Her campaign comes as Democrats target Texas’s 15th Congressional District, where Latino voters make up about three-quarters of the population. Despite that, De La Cruz secured reelection in 2024 by a wide margin. Cuellar acknowledges the uphill battle but stresses her commitment to accessibility. “What I’m hearing is that people feel their representatives don’t show up,” she said. “If I’m in office, that’s going to change. I will show up, and I will talk to people.”
The Democratic primary is scheduled for March 3, 2026. Cuellar’s candidacy places her at the center of one of the most closely watched congressional races in the country, where local concerns over healthcare and the economy may prove decisive.
