Bobby Pulido is sick and tired of apologizing
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Bobby Pulido is the Democratic candidate for Congress in Texas' 15th District. | Eric Gay/AP
HIDALGO, Texas — Bobby Pulido is learning that the bright lights of politics can be even harsher than music superstardom.
For the past several months, the Latin Grammy-winning singer and local megacelebrity has been the subject of a steady stream of national headlines scrutinizing his former professional relationship with a one-time bandmate who was imprisoned on child sex molestation charges. He’s also faced criticism for past social media posts that included racial, sexist and homophobic slurs and comments.
During a recent interview with POLITICO — after a weeknight meet-and-greet with voters in the same stadium where he performed his final concert in November 2025 — Pulido struck a defensive tone about the scandals that have plagued his campaign.
“I apologize right now,” Pulido said, referring to the social media posts. “I’ll tell you right now, that way you’ll never ask me again. I apologize for everything that I’ve ever joked about that offended anybody. But I can’t continue to revisit every single one.”
Pulido also insisted he did nothing wrong in his working relationship with Frankie Caballero , maintaining he did not know about his former accordionist’s child molestation charges. He expects opponents to “keep dripping, dripping, dripping, dripping” new social media posts.
“I’ve been an open book for 30 years,” he said. “I was on Twitter way before I thought about running for office. They’re gonna keep going to old tweets, and there’s a lot of tweets in there that I’m embarrassed of. There’s jokes that I’ve told that I apologize for, and I’ve owned up to them. I’m like, man, that makes me cringe, and I’ve publicly apologized.”
Pulido is one of House Democrats’ prized battleground recruits and a key part of their plan to flip control of the lower chamber. The first-time candidate is widely known in Texas’ 15th District for his singing career, and he hopes to capitalize on voters’ anti-incumbency angst in his bid against GOP Rep. Monica De La Cruz in a newly redrawn district that President Donald Trump won by 18 points in 2024.
Recent polling shows the race within the margin of error or Pulido leading , thanks in large part to his near-universal name ID. But while voters have shown a strong interest in political outsiders, those outsiders are also untested — and new revelations can swamp news cycles and potentially their chances.
The New York Post first reported in April on Pulido’s past relationship to Caballero, a registered sex offender who was imprisoned for indecent contact with an eight-year-old girl. Pulido told POLITICO he first learned that Caballero was incarcerated on sex charges from the Post report, and Pulido ’s campaign says the singer’s management company cut ties with Caballero after learning about a domestic abuse charge in 2021.
Pulido said he’d asked Caballero why he was in prison. “Transferring illegal aliens. That’s what he told me,” he told POLITICO. “And I knew he had a lot of substance abuse issues, and he violated a lot of his paroles. Those were the things that he told me.” (Pulido’s campaign told the Texas Tribune in July that Pulido only knew Caballero struggled with addiction.)
In June, Axios reported Caballero performed with Pulido at a middle school benefit concert in 2018, where children were present, after being released from prison. When asked if he regretted having Caballero play there, Pulido said he did — knowing what he knows now.
“Without me knowing, it’s hard for me to say that,” he said. “Me, that I know now, yes. I wish I wouldn’t have taken him there.”
Caballero could not be reached for comment.
Pulido’s past social media posts have also come back to haunt the singer-turned-politician. In Twitter posts between 2013 and 2018, Pulido used homophobic and sexist Spanish-language slurs which translate to “f-g,” “f----t” and “p---y.” In several other posts, he used the word “ prieto ,” a term referring to dark-skinned individuals many view as pejorative. The posts were first reported by NBC News and reviewed by POLITICO. In another 2013 Spanish-language post reviewed by POLITICO, Pulido joked that Mexican actor…
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