A video obtained by Breitbart News appears to show a City of Escobares public works employee installing campaign signs for Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-TX) while a marked city Public Works truck sits nearby. The footage has raised questions about whether municipal resources were used for political purposes in Starr County.
Neither the City of Escobares nor Cuellar’s campaign responded to requests for comment before the report was published.
Texas law bars city employees from knowingly using public funds, equipment or paid work time to distribute political material. Under Election Code §255.003, a violation is a Class A misdemeanor. The Texas Ethics Commission has also warned, in Advisory Opinion No. 550, that using government resources for a public servant’s private campaign activity would constitute a misuse of those resources.
Family faces separate federal cases
The video surfaced amid ongoing legal troubles involving Cuellar’s family. His brother, Webb County Sheriff Martin Cuellar, is under federal indictment along with Assistant Chief Deputy Alejandro Gutierrez over an alleged scheme to divert county resources between 2020 and 2022. Prosecutors say the two men, along with former Assistant Chief Deputy Ricardo Rodriguez, used sheriff’s office staff and equipment to run a private disinfecting company, Disinfect Pro Master, that had no employees or supplies of its own.
Court records show the company won a $500,000 contract with the United Independent School District while relying almost entirely on county personnel, with Cuellar, Gutierrez and Rodriguez each collecting roughly $175,000. Federal agents searched the sheriff’s office and the school district’s offices in June 2023. Rodriguez has since pleaded guilty; Cuellar and Gutierrez face up to 10 years in prison if convicted, and Martin Cuellar also faces a money laundering charge carrying a possible additional 10-year term.
Rep. Henry Cuellar and his wife, Imelda, were indicted in May 2024 on charges alleging they took nearly $600,000 in bribes from an Azerbaijan-government-controlled energy company and a Mexico City bank, funneled through sham consulting arrangements. Prosecutors alleged Cuellar used his congressional position to benefit both entities, including by shaping U.S. foreign policy and pressuring federal officials. The couple faced 14 counts each, ranging from bribery and conspiracy to money laundering and acting as an unregistered foreign agent.
Cuellar has denied wrongdoing throughout, saying he and his wife were innocent and that his actions in Congress were meant to serve South Texas. His campaign spent close to $1.6 million during the 2024 cycle, with about $784,900 going toward legal services, including nearly $690,000 to the firm Clifford Chance LLP, according to Federal Election Commission records.
In December 2025, President Donald Trump granted Henry and Imelda Cuellar full and unconditional pardons, calling the prosecution politically motivated and linking it to Cuellar’s past criticism of the Biden administration’s border policies.
Race draws national attention
Cuellar’s Republican opponent, Webb County Judge Tano Tijerina, has been endorsed by Trump, Sen. Ted Cruz, House Speaker Mike Johnson, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, House Majority Whip Tom Emmer and Gov. Greg Abbott. Trump has said he would pardon Cuellar again but that the congressman
