Democrat congressional candidate Bobby Pulido brought a convicted child sex offender to sing at a Texas middle school in 2018.
Newly surfaced tweets now reveal exactly how Pulido defended that decision.
What the Tejano singer muttered next is only now coming to light.
Old Tweets Resurface as Pulido Fights to Unseat De La Cruz
Pulido headlined a fundraiser for Harwell Middle School in Edinburg on May 24, 2018.
Standing next to him onstage was longtime accordionist Frankie Caballero, a man who had walked out of prison the year before after serving time for indecent sexual contact with an eight-year-old girl.
Children were in the crowd that night at Richard R. Flores Stadium.
Weeks later, when critics pushed back online, Pulido did not apologize.
He argued that child molestation is abhorrent but then went further, writing that it is "not necessarily rape or murder."
Pulido claimed he was simply making Geraldo Rivera's point that sex offenders have been unfairly demonized.
He compared the backlash to banning white people from buying guns because most mass shooters are white.
That comparison is now surfacing for the first time as Pulido runs for Congress in Texas' 15th District, a border seat Donald Trump carried by eighteen points in 2024.
Pulido is challenging Republican Rep. Monica De La Cruz in one of the most closely watched House races in the country.
A Middle School Stage Pulido Never Wanted Remembered
Caballero was not a stranger Pulido met that day.
The two men performed together for decades, and Caballero remained part of Pulido's band well after his release from prison.
Bond records reviewed by Click2Houston listed the Bobby Pulido Band as Caballero's employer as recently as 2021, the same year new charges were filed against him.
A South Texas bass player has said Caballero's conviction was, in his words, common knowledge in Tejano music circles for years.
Pulido has told reporters he had no idea, insisting Caballero never told him.
But the pattern kept surfacing anyway.
At a November 2018 show, Pulido called Caballero a "bad man," then got a laugh by claiming the accordionist had gone to "Penn State" – a line widely read as pointing to that university's own child sex abuse scandal.
Pulido told Bloomberg Government the joke referred to prison slang and had nothing to do with Penn State at all.
Voters in the 15th District are being asked to believe that explanation while also believing Pulido never noticed the man beside him on stage was a registered predator.
Republicans are not buying either story.
The National Republican Congressional Committee wasted no time branding Pulido a "depraved liar with a shattered moral compass" the moment his old posts resurfaced.
Pulido's Own Words Undercut His Innocence Defense
Pulido wants South Texas families to see a hometown musician who plays quinceañeras and understands the border.
What his own words show is a candidate who reached for a defense of child molesters the moment one of his oldest friends got caught being one.
That is not a slip of the tongue from 2018 – it is a worldview, and it walked straight onto a middle school stage with children in the audience.
National Democrats put Pulido on the DCCC's Red to Blue list to flip a seat Trump won by eighteen points, and what they got instead was a man whose own tweets excuse the exact crime his bandmate committed.
Every denial he's offered since collapses under the same test: a man who truly did not know would not have had a defense of molestation already loaded the moment his friend was accused.
South Texas parents do not get to un-hear what their own kids applauded onstage that night in Edinburg.
Come November, De La Cruz's campaign will not need to invent an attack ad.
Pulido already wrote it himself.
Sources:
- Ashley Brasfield, "EXCLUSIVE: Dem Candidate Said Molesting Kids 'Not Necessarily Rape,' Brought Sex Offender To School," Daily Caller, July 14, 2026.
- National Republican Congressional Committee, "Child Molester Apologist: Bobby Pulido," NRCC.org, July 14, 2026.
- Fox News Digital, "Dem candidate blasted GOP opponent over joke about bandmate convicted child sex abuse," Fox News, 2026.
- Axios, "Bobby Pulido Congress Texas," Axios, June 22, 2026.
- Western Journal, "Dem Congressional Candidate Caught Bringing Sex Offender Who Victimized 8-Year-Old with Him to School Event," Western Journal, June 2026.
- Click2Houston, "As Democrats eye South Texas upset, Bobby Pulido faces scrutiny over ex-bandmate's child sex offenses," Click2Houston, July 6, 2026.
- Bloomberg Government, "Democrat in Tight Texas Race: 'No Idea' of Bandmate's Sex Crime," Bloomberg Government, July 2026.
