On Tuesday, Republican Tano Tijerina kicked off his run in a key South Texas battleground district by highlighting the legal and ethical case against his Democratic opponent, Rep. Henry Cuellar.

On Wednesday, President Donald Trump announced a “full and unconditional” pardon of Cuellar, effectively neutralizing a political attack Republicans were hoping to deploy in their quest to flip his 28th District seat.

Democrats see the decision as another example of Trump stepping on the GOP’s midterm messaging.

Just last month, the president held a surprisingly congenial meeting in the Oval Office with New York Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani, the self-described democratic socialist he had previously slammed as a “communist lunatic.”

The National Republican Congressional Committee had alrea

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