Bobby Pulido, the two-time Latin Grammy Award-winning Tejano singer now running as the Democratic nominee in Texas' 15th Congressional District, is facing pointed questions about why he spent years performing alongside a bandmate convicted of sexually abusing an eight-year-old girl.
The bandmate, accordion player Frankie Caballero, was convicted in May 2014 of a second-degree felony involving indecent contact with an eight-year-old female and was incarcerated, as documented on the Texas Public Sex Offender website. The New York Post reported that Caballero served four years in prison. Yet between 2018 and 2021, after that conviction and prison sentence, Caballero toured again with Pulido, appearing with him onstage in Kansas City, Las Vegas, Minneapolis, and Tucson, Fox News Digital reported.
Videos shared on YouTube showed the two performing together in those cities. Pulido's campaign now says he had no idea about Caballero's criminal record, a claim his Republican opponent calls flatly dishonest.
Pulido, 52, first collaborated with Caballero in 1995. Caballero performed on Pulido's debut album, "Desvelado," a record that helped launch the singer's career in Tejano music. The relationship between the two men stretched across decades, through Caballero's arrest, conviction, incarceration, release, and return to the stage with Pulido.
Pulido's campaign manager, Abel Prado, told Fox News Digital that the singer had no knowledge of Caballero's sex offender status. Prado said Caballero was "immediately fired" in 2021 when Jimmy Montez Management, the entity handling Pulido's career, learned of Caballero's criminal history.
Prado offered a statement on Pulido's behalf:
"First and foremost, Bobby extends his deepest sympathies and support to all of the victims involved."
Prado added that Caballero "has long struggled with addiction issues and Bobby Pulido has acknowledged and attempted to help him with that battle." He maintained that Pulido "was never made aware of Caballero's sex offender registration and would never knowingly associate with anyone with that kind of history."
That timeline raises an obvious question. Caballero was convicted and incarcerated in 2014. He served four years. He then returned to touring with Pulido. The management team claims it didn't learn of the conviction until 2021, seven years after the felony conviction was entered and at least three years after Caballero resumed performing alongside Pulido. A basic search of the Texas Public Sex Offender website would have surfaced Caballero's record at any point during that span.
Rep. Monica De La Cruz, the two-term Republican incumbent whose seat Pulido is seeking, did not mince words. She shared a screenshot of the New York Post's report on Instagram along with a written statement. Controversy within Democratic ranks in Texas is nothing new, recent infighting among Texas Democrats has already drawn national attention, but this situation involves a far more serious set of facts.
De La Cruz said in her Instagram post:
"My heart goes out to the children who were sexually abused by a close friend and business associate of Bobby Pulido."
She went further, claiming Pulido had been "caught on tape admitting he knew of this man's criminality", and that Pulido "now falsely claims to have been unaware of his crimes." Fox News Digital did not detail what tape De La Cruz was referencing, and that claim remains unverified in the available reporting. But the congresswoman was unequivocal in her framing.
"For three decades, he brought a child predator into our neighborhoods with multiple convictions for sexually abusing children in Hidalgo County, including an eight-year-old girl."
De La Cruz closed her statement with a direct appeal to the families of victims: "These are not South Texas values. To the families of these children whose suffering Mr. Pulido ignored: I am here for you. Please contact my office."
Pulido officially announced his Democratic candidacy for Texas' 15th Congressional District in September 2025, though Fox News Digital noted he had announced his run "last fall." The scrutiny over Caballero comes at a moment when the candidate can least afford it, at the outset of a congressional campaign in a competitive South Texas district.
The central problem for Pulido is not complicated. A man he employed and toured with for years was a registered sex offender whose conviction was a matter of public record. The Texas Public Sex Offender website is not a classified database. It exists precisely so that employers, neighbors, and the public can check. Pulido's management team says it didn't check until 2021. That is either a serious failure of due diligence or something worse.
Fox News Digital reported that it reached out to Caballero for comment. No response was noted in the reporting.
The Caballero controversy is not the only baggage trailing Pulido's candidacy. Fox News Digital also reported that Pulido has sparked controversy over resurfaced posts on his personal X account. One post, from 2015, referenced pharmaceutical executive Martin Shkreli, who later served a seven-year prison sentence, with the line: "Don't drop the soap a**hole." The tone of that remark, directed at a man heading to prison, takes on a different weight given what Pulido's campaign now says he didn't know about his own bandmate's prison stint.
Separately, a resurfaced post appeared to show Pulido urinating on President Donald Trump's Hollywood Walk of Fame star. And in a 2010 music video for "Dias de Ayer," Pulido portrayed a character wrapped in a red blanket engaging in indecent acts and appearing to expose himself to a woman seated next to him on a plane. These are the social media and creative choices of a man now asking South Texas voters to send him to Congress. Voters in that district have seen serious misconduct allegations directed at Democratic figures before, and they tend to pay attention.
Several questions hang over this story. What tape is De La Cruz referring to when she says Pulido was "caught on tape admitting he knew of this man's criminality"? If such a recording exists, its contents could collapse the campaign's entire defense. Pulido's team has not addressed the claim beyond the blanket denial that he "was never made aware."
How did Jimmy Montez Management employ Caballero for three years after his release from prison without discovering his sex offender registration? Did anyone on Pulido's team run a background check at any point between 2018 and 2021? If not, why not? These are not trick questions. They are the bare minimum that any employer, let alone a public figure with access to children at concert venues, should be able to answer. The pattern of ethical lapses and poor vetting within Democratic political circles is becoming difficult to dismiss as coincidence.
And there is a broader question about accountability. Pulido's campaign expressed "deepest sympathies" for victims. But sympathy after the fact, after years of touring with a convicted child sex offender, after the story broke in the press, after an opponent forced the issue, is not the same as responsibility. Sympathy costs nothing. Accountability requires explaining what happened and when.
South Texas voters deserve answers, not press releases. Democratic leaders in Washington have shown a pattern of expecting voters to accept vague explanations and move on, whether the subject is controversial legislative proposals or personal conduct. In this case, the facts on the public record are stark enough that "I didn't know" demands far more than a campaign manager's say-so.
If Bobby Pulido wants to represent the people of Texas' 15th Congressional District, he owes them more than a prepared statement. He owes them a full accounting, of what he knew, when he knew it, and why a convicted child sex offender kept showing up onstage beside him for years after the conviction was entered.
Voters in South Texas didn't ask for sympathy. They asked for judgment, and so far, Pulido has shown precious little of it.