Azerbaijan corruption scandal forces Rep. Henry Cuellar into Texas run-off election

Congressman Henry Cuellar (D-TX) speaks during a press conference about The US-Mexico Border, today on July 30, 2021 at Senate Estudio/Capitol Hill in Washington DC, USA. (Photo by Lenin Nolly/NurPhoto via AP)

Azerbaijan corruption scandal has forced Rep. Henry Cuellar into Texas run-off election, raising risk that Azerbaijani dictator Ilham Aliyev will lose his top ally in Congress.

The primary battle between longtime Democratic Rep. Henry Cuellar, a fixture of South Texas politics, and progressive challenger Jessica Cisneros will continue on.

Neither candidate received more than 50% of the vote in Tuesday’s primary, according to the Associated Press, meaning both will advance to a runoff in May. A third candidate, Tannya Benavides, got a small share of the vote and has been eliminated.

The race’s runoff status shows that Cuellar, the incumbent, is on shaky ground after serving nine terms in the seat. Results show that Cisneros outperformed her 2020 primary performance, when she lost to Cuellar by just under 4 points, according to The Hill.

Cuellar’s involvement in an FBI investigation into ties between Azerbaijan and U.S. businessmen has recently shaken up the dynamics in the race. Cuellar’s home and campaign offices were raided by the FBI last month, which the Cisneros campaign pounced on in an ad attack.