Few House races are messier than Texas’ 28th Congressional District along the southern border.
It’s well known that the congressman who has represented the district for just shy of two decades, Rep. Henry Cuellar, was indicted in May for accepting foreign bribes and money laundering.
It’s less well known that the Republican opponent tasked with toppling Cuellar, retired Navy Commander Jay Furman, appeared to lack documented ties to the district before running for the seat — or that he admitted to choosing to run in the district for overtly political reasons.
“In fact, picking this district was to intentionally do so to try to provide a national platform to promote President Trump because he is going to be the one and singular person who can save us from this moment,” Furman said during a Veterans for America First interview shortly after his campaign launch in January.
The district Furman is running in has been a priority for national GOP groups in the past, but this cycle, they’ve largely sat this race out, even after Cuellar’s indictments. Cuellar won his last election by 13 points, despite an FBI raid of his home right before ballots were cast and despite facing a well-funded candidate with ties to the region. Furman, now facing scrutiny for his background, may not stand much of a chance.
Furman — who has previously owned property in the Austin area — told the interviewer he moved back to Texas after serving at a duty station attached to the Pentagon. (“It’s true when they say it’s a swamp,” Furman said of his time near Washington, D.C.)
Upon returning to Texas, Furman moved to the San Antonio area with the intention of singing Donald Trump’s praises on the campaign trail and hammering one of the GOP’s top issues: border security.
“We have to get a hold of this now,” Furman said at the January event, referencing illegal border crossings. “We can’t wait or this will be, probably, our end or demise, which is why I picked Texas 28.”
“I retired back to my home state in Texas, and here I picked to live in San Antonio,” he continued, “because Texas 28 is a border district and it’s been 110-year Democrat rule.”
Running for office with a campaign platform grounded in allegiance to Trump and border security crackdowns is no surprise. Dozens of House candidates — incumbents and first-time contenders — are deploying that same strategy, betting that animating the party’s MAGA base with a red meat topic will deliver wins. What’s different about Furman, however, is his confession that he chose the district to run in specifically to leverage those issues.
It’s especially noteworthy given Furman was not short of harsh words for the district in February at a Take Our Border Back pep rally. (Ironically, the event took place in Dripping Springs near Austin, well outside the bounds of Furman’s prospective district.)
“This is LBJ’s old district, 110-year Democrat rule, and it is the worst of the worst,” he said, referencing illegal border crossings. “It is a chink in our armor.”
“I am a Texan and I have always maintained my Texas resident status serving around the world in the U.S. military,” Furman told NOTUS in a statement. “While I began my military career flying Blackhawks on the Texas border in a drug war, I now return home to find my state’s border completely broken and, of course, I want to help put it back together.”
“I endorsed former President Trump and support his proven solutions for everyday South Texans who prioritize God, traditional family, and patriotic sovereignty at our border, in our neighborhoods, our children’s schools, at the grocery store and the gas pump,” he added.
While Furman acknowledged “picking” the district for political reasons, he does have ties to the state at large. He grew up in Texas and attended Texas A&M University, where he received a Bachelor of Science degree. According to county records, Furman owned two properties near Austin in a district represented by Rep. Michael McCaul from 2010 to 2022.
State records show that Furman also owns a home in Upper Marlboro, Maryland, which he purchased in 2017. That property is listed as Furman’s “principal residence.” (Furman now lives in Universal City, outside of San Antonio, where he is registered to vote.)
In a March Facebook video filmed in front of his Universal City house at Randolph Air Force Base, Furman offered some explanation about his residency.
“Sometimes a military member goes in front of the family, as I have retired back here to Texas,” he said. “I have always been a Texas resident, but I have a son and a wife. He’s trying to finish up high school. She’s trying to help him. He is trying to finish at the same place. That’s real rare for us.”
It’s true that during Furman’s 28 years in the Navy, he was stationed around the world, including in Africa and the Middle East. Republicans backing Furman point to his Navy retirement as his opportunity to choose where he wants to live.
“As a Navy veteran, Jay Furman has always run towards the fight — first as he served our country, and now as he steps up to fix Democrats’ border mess,” National Republican Congressional Committee spokesperson Delanie Bomar said in a statement to NOTUS. “Attacking a Navy veteran who moved while serving his country is despicable.”
A former GOP party chair in Webb County, Luis De La Garza, also told NOTUS he thought the carpetbagging allegations were misconstrued. “There’s a gentleman, who is from Texas, who went out, served his country, has come back and now wants to continue to serve his country,” De La Garza said.
Still, what’s surprising about Furman’s decision to run in the South Texas district is that he picked a race he’s likely to lose — even after Cuellar’s indictments.
South Texas has remained a Democratic stronghold despite Republican attempts to convert the area’s voters. It’s unclear if Furman will make any headway.
Although Cuellar faces serious allegations, he has a history in the district and has amassed a vast political network that Furman doesn’t come close to matching.
“From what I see on his ads, he’s a good-looking cowboy. He’s wearing the cowboy hat and he’s wearing the cowboy boots, and so he looks like the typical Texas rancher,” said Sylvia Bruni, the Democratic chair for Webb County. “I don’t know anything that he’s ever done, certainly not in Webb County.”
The congressional district stretches up to include suburbs of San Antonio, but the area around Laredo — in Webb County — is considered the anchor for the seat. It’s an insular world, and people are used to candidates who lived their entire lives in the area, or at least part of it. Without amassing support in Laredo, winning an election against Cuellar would be a long shot at best.
Furman hasn’t gotten a single donation from anyone listing a Laredo address, and a NOTUS analysis found that only two donors listed an address anywhere in the district, according to FEC data. While the FEC data is incomplete — small-dollar donations aren’t required to be itemized, for instance — it can indicate where candidates are finding their strongest support.
“I’m not wanting to be cruel or negative, it’s simply a fact. The facts are that, in Webb County, this gentleman is an unknown,” Bruni said. “He’s never appeared before, until he launched his try for that congressional seat.”
But that doesn’t mean everyone in the district is against him.
“He’s not part of any political machine. He’s doing it on his own,” Alberto Olivares, who’s running for sheriff in Starr County as a Republican, told NOTUS.
Even if Furman hasn’t been around much, Olivares said he’s better than a candidate who’s been federally indicted.
“It’s time for a refresh,” Olivares said.
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Riley Rogerson is a reporter at NOTUS. Casey Murray is a NOTUS reporter and an Allbritton Journalism Institute fellow.