In 2022 she became the first Republican Latina ever elected to Congress from Texas, flipping a South Texas seat Democrats had held for generations.
Raised by a single mother in Brownsville and the granddaughter of a Mexican farmworker, De La Cruz ran a small insurance agency in the Rio Grande Valley for more than 20 years before winning her House seat in 2022. Now seeking a third term, she's branded herself as a border-security-focused Republican who has occasionally broken with her party, including joining Democrats in January 2026 to extend expiring ACA health-insurance subsidies.
Cruz’s take on Texas values
De La Cruz voted for the SAVE Act, which requires documentary proof of citizenship to register to vote, and separately called a Democratic voting-access bill an attempt to "rig our elections." [delacruz.house.gov press release]