Speaker Johnson Barnstorms Four South Texas Districts to Save GOP's House Majority

House Speaker Mike Johnson is spending this week crisscrossing four South Texas congressional districts, campaigning alongside Republican candidates in a region that has become one of the most closely watched battlegrounds in the fight for control of Congress. The Louisiana Republican's swing takes him through Laredo, Harlingen, San Antonio and San Patricio County, hitting districts that are all majority Hispanic and were all carried by Donald Trump in 2024.

According to The Texas Tribune, Johnson will appear in the 35th Congressional District Wednesday evening before heading to a veterans-focused event Thursday with Republican nominee Carlos De La Cruz, an Air Force veteran running against Democrat Johnny Garcia, a moderate Democrat and Bexar County sheriff's deputy. That district, based in San Antonio and counties east of the city, was completely scrambled during redistricting and was carried by Trump by 10 points in 2024, per the same report. The stakes could hardly be higher nationally: the House GOP is clinging to a 218-212 majority, and Johnson has spent much of August campaigning in competitive districts around the country as he tries to maintain or expand that edge in November.

Laredo and the Cuellar Fight

Johnson is also set to rally in Laredo with Webb County Judge Tano Tijerina, a Democrat-turned-Republican challenging longtime Democratic Rep. Henry Cuellar, and the two will open Tijerina's campaign headquarters in the 28th Congressional District together, the Tribune reports. Cuellar, a Democratic representative from Laredo who was reelected in 2024, remains in the race after President Trump pardoned him and his wife in December 2025, ending their federal bribery and money laundering prosecution, according to the San Antonio Express-News. Rather than switch to the GOP after the pardon, Cuellar re-filed as a Democrat for reelection.

The 28th District was redrawn to increase Trump's victory margin to 10 points, and a majority of the district's voters preferred Trump in 2024, per the Tribune's reporting. Tijerina, who served as Webb County's top Democratic executive for a decade before switching parties in December 2024, launched his campaign against Cuellar last December, citing concerns that national Democrats had moved too far left, according to KSAT. Trump carried Webb County itself with 51% of the vote in 2024, the first time the majority-Hispanic border county backed a Republican presidential candidate in more than a century.

Harlingen and the Race to Replace Tony Gonzales

On Thursday, Johnson will participate in a law enforcement event in Harlingen with Republican candidate Eric Flores, a lawyer and Army veteran running in the 34th Congressional District against Democratic Rep. Vicente Gonzalez, a representative from McAllen, according to Flores' campaign. The 34th District, which includes parts of Corpus Christi, was redrawn to be more GOP-friendly as part of the same mid-decade remapping that reshaped the 28th District, the Tribune notes.

Johnson has also thrown his support behind Republican Brandon Herrera in the 23rd Congressional District, a GOP-leaning seat that sat vacant after Tony Gonzales resigned, a race national Democrats have targeted. Johnson previously campaigned in San Antonio in support of Herrera back in July. Trump carried the 23rd District by 15 points in 2024, according to the Tribune's account, and as Hoodline reported, Gonzales stepped down amid an ethics probe tied to an affair with a staffer.

San Patricio County and a Tejano Star's Challenge

Johnson will rally Thursday with Rep. Monica De La Cruz, a Republican representative from Edinburg and second-term incumbent, in San Patricio County, part of the Coastal Bend that was added to her 15th Congressional District under the GOP's new redistricting map. Trump won her district by 18 points in 2024, the Tribune reports. De La Cruz is running against Democrat Bobby Pulido, a Tejano musician whose celebrity profile has made him a high-wattage challenger in the race, as Hoodline has previously detailed.

The Cook Political Report rates all four districts as competitive, ranging from lean Democratic to likely Republican, underscoring that none of the outcomes are settled despite the favorable Trump numbers baked into the new maps. Republicans are defending a couple of South Texas districts already targeted by Democrats, while also needing to pick up all three Democratic-held South Texas seats redrawn to favor the GOP if the party wants to fully capitalize on the remap.

A Test of Latino Realignment Without Trump on the Ballot

The central question hanging over Johnson's tour is whether Republicans can turn out Hispanic voters in a midterm election without Trump himself on the ballot, especially as the Tribune's reporting notes that Trump's approval rating has slipped among Latino voters since 2024. The four South Texas seats have become a proving ground for whether the GOP's border-county gains in 2024 reflect a lasting political realignment or a one-time surge tied to Trump's presence at the top of the ticket.

The visit comes as Congress remains on recess, giving Johnson and other national figures room to campaign directly for candidates ahead of November. With the House majority balanced on a knife's edge, the outcomes in Laredo, Harlingen, San Antonio and the Coastal Bend could determine which party controls the chamber for the remainder of the decade.