Democratic congressional candidate Bobby Pulido defended a fellow Latin music artist’s graphic video depicting sexual violence, handcuffing a woman to a pole, groping her, and burning her alive in a car trunk — and the 2016 interview is now resurfacing as a major liability in one of the nation’s most competitive House races.
In the music video for “Fuiste Mía” (“You were mine”) by Gerardo Ortiz, a man walks in on his girlfriend with another man, shoots the lover, then handcuffs the woman to a pole, blindfolds and gropes her, forces her into a car trunk, and sets the vehicle on fire.
When the video sparked public outrage, Pulido came to Ortiz’s defense, calling it “a matter of artistic direction.”
“I’ve made videos with suggestive images; some have stayed, others have been edited, and still others were never used. That’s the decision of the artist and their team.”
Pulido is a Latin Grammy Award-winning Tejano artist (“Desvelado,” “Se Murió de Amor”) now running to unseat Rep. Monica De La Cruz in Texas’ 15th Congressional District. De La Cruz won her 2024 re-election 57.1% to 42.9% — a commanding victory in a district Democrats desperately want to flip.
The resurfaced defense of the violent video is the latest in a pattern Pulido has struggled to explain away.
He previously shrugged off posting links to explicit websites on his X account, saying in 2024 that “it’s impossible to have Twitter and not watch porn.” He also dismissed a viral photo appearing to show him urinating on President Donald Trump’s Hollywood Walk of Fame star, claiming he had only poured water on it “as a joke.”
More seriously, Pulido faced GOP criticism for bringing a registered sex offender to a Texas middle school benefit concert in 2018. Pulido denied knowing the man’s status at the time and called coverage of it a “nothing story,” according to Axios.
In the same 2016 interview defending Ortiz, Pulido compared the graphic music video to rubbernecking at a car accident.
“What happens when there’s a [car] accident?” Pulido asked. “Traffic doesn’t flow because people slow down or even stop to see what happened; something similar happens with the regional Mexican genre when these kinds of incidents occur.”
He added that while he didn’t always agree with depictions of women in music, “everyone is entitled to an opinion.”
When Fox News asked Pulido’s campaign about the resurfaced interview, the campaign deflected to allegations against De La Cruz.
“This is emblematic of national Republicans doing anything and everything to distract voters from what are very real — not based on a fictional video — child abuse accusations against Monica De La Cruz,” a Pulido campaign spokesperson said.
The statement referenced divorce proceedings in which De La Cruz’s former husband accused her of verbally abusing his 14-year-old daughter from a previous relationship. Authorities did not press charges or open an investigation.
The campaign added that Republicans are “deliberately mischaracterized a decade-old Spanish-language interview, in which Bobby said he respects artists’ right to make their own music.”
Republicans aren’t buying it.
“Bobby Pulido has spent his entire adult life defending perverts and predators while lashing out at members of law enforcement who keep Texans safe. He is a truly sick individual who is morally rotten.”
That’s Zach Kraft, spokesperson for the Republican National Committee, in a statement to Fox News Digital.
Pulido and De La Cruz will face off in Texas’ general election on November 3.
