CUERO, Texas -- When Tejano music star Bobby Pulido entered a Mexican restaurant in Texas Trump country a few days ago decked out in jeans and a denim shirt, black cowboy boots and his iconic ivory cowboy hat emblazoned with his initials, all eyes turned to him. Customers left their half-eaten lunches and workers paused to take selfies and reminisce about live performances of his 1995 hit "Desvelado."

"Welcome! I need a photo," a woman said in Spanish as she squeezed her way through a fawning crowd surrounding him.

After mingling with star-struck fans, Pulido entered a back room -- less with the swagger of an international megastar and more with the humility of a novice politician.

He was there for a luncheon, part of a listening tour he launched in July to explore running for Congress. Pulido was days away from announcing his candidacy as the Democrats' newest hope of turning Texas, or at least a sliver of it, blue.

Outside the restaurant, yard signs read: "Run Bobby, Run!"

He listened. Pulido's set to officially announce Wednesday that he's running in Texas' 15th Congressional District, aiming to challenge Rep. Monica De La Cruz, the first Republican and first Latina elected to represent this district in the House of Representatives. She first won in 2022, after the district was gerrymandered in 2021, and was re-elected in 2024, each time by large margins in what used to be a reliably Democratic seat.

National Democrats have put De La Cruz at the top of their 2026 midterm elections target list, with the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee labeling her the "most vulnerable" Republican in Texas.

MSNBC documented the days leading up to Pulido's announcement, and during an exclusive interview, he revealed his decision to leave music behind in hopes of going to Washington.

It's a good thing Pulido is used to the spotlight. His entry into the race thrusts the Latin Grammy winner directly into the epicenter of a national tit-for-tat redistricting war that will decide whether President Donald Trump's party will retain control of Congress and fulfill his post-midterm agenda.

Pulido's candidacy also trains attention on Latino voters, who voted for Trump in 2024 in record numbers, including here in South Texas, in spite of his promises of mass deportations.

First, he must win the Democratic primary in March. If he goes on to defeat De La Cruz in the general election, it would signal that the Republicans' mid-decade gerrymandering bid to redraw the Texas congressional map to bolster the party's majority in the House failed.

Texas Republicans were following Trump's directive when they recently voted to approve a gerrymandered map aimed at flipping as many as five of the Lone Star State's congressional seats in the 2026 midterm elections. (One of those seats is held by Democratic Rep. Al Green, of Houston, who says, "It is more than redistricting. It's really theft.")

"You can gerrymander the district," says Pulido, 52, who is currently on a "farewell" tour in the United States and Mexico. "You can't gerrymander Tejano culture in South Texas."

With his decision to run, Pulido, who won his Latin Grammy for best Tejano album of the year in 2022, is positioning himself as the Democratic Party's secret weapon to beat Republicans at their own game. The newly redrawn map, ironically, makes the state's 15th Congressional District one of the more competitive Texas races of 2026.

"It's not a vanity project," said Pulido, who believes running for office is an opportunity to use his voice -- not to sing -- but to speak on behalf of the people of the 15th District, a narrow strip that runs from the Rio Grande Valley north toward San Antonio, with a few new zigs and zags, courtesy of GOP gerrymandering.

Pulido would be a "credible threat" to De La Cruz who may succeed in putting a blue dot on Texas' red map because his name "transcends partisan politics," says Mark Jones, Baker Institute fellow in political science at Rice University in Houston. In fact, if Pulido prevails, the entire tip of South Texas could turn blue again if Democrats retain control of the two districts adjacent to the 15th.

"When you combine those high levels of name recognition and his positive association with Tejano music, he has a very realistic prospect of defeating Monica De La Cruz in 2026, especially if we see Donald Trump's approval ratings continue to fall here in Texas," Jones said.

When Texas Republicans gerrymandered the state, they assumed Latinos would vote for Republican candidates in midterm elections with the same enthusiasm they showed for Trump in 2024, but that's not what Jones foresees next year.

"We're more likely to see a reversion to normal Texas Latino voting patterns where Democrats do better," Jones said.

If Pulido wins, the Trump-led mid-decade gerrymandering strategy in Texas will have blown up in Republicans' faces, Jones argues. Which means Republicans will likely be laser-focused on attacking Pulido on all fronts, he said.

Thanks to the GOP's gerrymandered maps, the 15th District now includes MAGA enclaves where some residents say they feel pressured to vote Republican. But Pulido says he's up for the challenge; he's been an underdog before. He's a Democrat, after all, "because I fight for the little guy."

He was a broke college student studying political science when a record label offered him an opportunity he couldn't refuse. That's when his father told him, "You're not ready, son... you've never sang professionally."

The new candidate recalls telling his father, Roberto Pulido, a Tejano music legend, "If it's my destiny and God decides that I'm going to be a singer and the fans like my music, then I'll be a singer."

Like his dad, Pulido went on to become one of the biggest names in Tejano music and built a worldwide following. His biggest hit, "Desvelado," has been played more than 436 million times on Spotify.

Now that he's entering politics, he says he'll do the same -- leave it up to God and the voters.

Tejano music star Bobby Pulido launches bid for Congress as a Democrat in deep red Texas