Hakeem Jeffries spent Sunday working the pews of San Antonio, telling roughly 150 worshipers at Cavalry Baptist Church that Democrats stand ready to govern if they win back the U.S. House in next week's midterms. The House Minority Leader, who is positioned to become speaker if his party retakes the chamber, used the stop to campaign alongside Democratic candidate Johnny Garcia in Texas's newly redrawn 35th Congressional District.
Jeffries spoke at Cavalry Baptist Church, where Reverend Kevin L. Nelson spoke after his address, according to the San Antonio Report. Nelson told the congregation that Jeffries knows both politics and the Prince of Peace, per the same report. Jeffries also visited two Black churches in San Antonio on Sunday morning.
Garcia's Invitation and a District Built to Flip
Garcia invited Jeffries to campaign with him in San Antonio as he runs against Republican Carlos De La Cruz in the 35th District. The seat is one of five Texas districts Republicans redrew in 2025 as pickup targets. Texas's 35th was specifically created to give Republicans an additional pickup opportunity by concentrating low-propensity voters of color within its lines, and under its new boundaries Donald Trump would have carried the district by more than 10 points.
Jeffries said Garcia was making a strong case that Washington is broken, and told the congregation he would support the future Texas delegation's new leadership, energy and perspective if Garcia wins, representing what Jeffries called change. He also promised to work closely with a reshaped Texas congressional delegation.
The National Math Behind the Texas Push
Every seat in the U.S. House is up for reelection in November, and recent polling indicates Democrats are favored to flip between 12 and 22 seats on Nov. 3, per the San Antonio Report's account of the race landscape. Cook Political Report has indicated Democrats could compete in two San Antonio-area congressional districts that Republicans carried easily just two years ago, with analyst Erin Covey saying Republicans' path to keeping control of the House had nearly disappeared — though Covey added that the size of a Democratic majority remains the outstanding question.
Other national surveys point the same direction. The NBC News polling average found 52% of likely voters prefer Democratic control of the House versus 43% who prefer Republicans, while a Pew Research Center survey found registered voters favoring Democrats by 44% to 36% overall, and by 51% to 24% among Hispanic voters specifically. The New York Times reported that Cook has shifted 63 House race ratings toward Democrats since the end of September, and that polls show Democrats leading Republicans by double digits among Latino voters on the generic congressional ballot — a shift that has turned predominantly Latino Texas districts Trump won by double digits two years ago into genuine battlegrounds.
Why the 35th District Is So Close
The numbers help explain why the 35th District remains competitive, even though Trump would have carried it by more than 10 points under its new boundaries. Inside Elections, meanwhile, rates the Garcia-De La Cruz race as Lean Republican, according to Roll Call. A poll from House Majority PAC, conducted by Normington Petts, found Garcia statistically tied with De La Cruz, with Garcia pulling 44% support to De La Cruz's 45% in the initial head-to-head test, according to House Majority PAC.
Republicans are hoping to flip five congressional districts across Texas in all, though Democrats can likely flip the U.S. House even without winning those five targeted seats.
A Wider Pattern Across South Texas
The 35th isn't an isolated case. Texas's 15th Congressional District is another competitive race.
Nationally, one modeled scenario built on a 5.5-point shift toward Democrats produced a narrow Democratic House majority of 220 seats to Republicans' 215, according to NBC News's analysis. Jeffries has framed the stakes in personal terms as well, telling the San Antonio congregation he would serve as a check and balance on the executive branch and oppose military action in Iran without congressional approval, while pledging a legislative fix — the John Robert Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act — to restore voting protections for people of color after the U.S. Supreme Court weakened a key provision of the 1965 Voting Rights Act in 2025.
Jeffries, 56, grew up attending Cornerstone Baptist Church in Brooklyn, a biographical detail that shaped the framing of Sunday's church-centered swing through San Antonio. Among those listening was 68-year-old Darrell Payne, who said women and minorities should take on more leadership roles given the country's diversity. Republicans won control of the White House, U.S. House and Senate in 2024, but Democrats are now banking on Trump's return to office working against his party at the ballot box this time around.
