Rep. Cuellar attacked on his anti-abortion stance by opponent Cisneros in Texas Democratic run-off

WASHINGTON — Texas Democratic House candidate Jessica Cisneros is demanding her party's congressional leaders drop their support of her primary opponent, Rep. Henry Cuellar, over his opposition to abortion.

Her attack on Cuellar comes as a blockbuster leak of a Supreme Court draft opinion that would overturn Roe v. Wade is galvanizing Democrats to defend abortion rights and could shake up the midterm elections this year.

"As the Supreme Court prepares to overturn Roe v. Wade, I am calling on Democratic Party leadership to withdraw their support of Henry Cuellar who is the last anti-choice Democrat in the House," Cisneros said in a statement to NBC News Wednesday morning.

Cisneros added that "with the House majority on the line, he could very much be the deciding vote on the future of our reproductive rights and we cannot afford to take that risk."

Asked about her request of her party leaders, Cisneros told NBC News, "The reality is, I would be a better working partner for Democratic leadership to be able to deliver on these Democratic priorities and proposals that Democrats ran on in the last election cycle."

Cisneros' comments come as House Majority Whip James Clyburn, D-S.C., is set to campaign with Cuellar at a rally in San Antonio Wednesday night. Her statement noted that Cuellar has been endorsed by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., and Caucus Chairman Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y.

A runoff election in the close race will be held May 24 after neither candidate won a majority of the vote in the state's Democratic primary March 2.

Cisneros, 28, has been endorsed by several abortion rights advocacy groups, including NARAL Pro-Choice America and EMILY's List, as well as progressive lawmakers Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass.

Cisneros has criticized Cuellar, a moderate, for being the only Democrat to vote against a bill, dubbed the Women's Health Protection Act, which would have codified the abortion rights enshrined in Roe v. Wade into federal law.

Cuellar, meanwhile, has defended his longtime opposition to abortion, saying in a statement Tuesday that he has "always been pro-life" as a lifelong Catholic, but there "must be exceptions in the case of rape, incest and danger to the life of the mother."

"Let me be clear about the leaked opinion of the potential SCOTUS ruling, it is not based on precedent and is not incremental in nature," Cuellar said in a statement posted on his campaign’s Twitter account. "It will further divide the country during these already divisive times but let us wait until the final ruling."

Cuellar, 66, has served in Congress since 2005, representing Texas' 28th Congressional District, a predominantly Hispanic region that covers the areas of San Antonio and as far south as the U.S.-Mexico border.

Polls have shown that views among Hispanics on abortion have paralleled those of the general population nationally, with just under 60 percent saying abortion should be legal in all or most cases and 40 percent saying it should be illegal in all or most cases, according to the Pew Research Center. An NBC News poll shortly after Texas passed a law outlawing nearly all abortions in the state found a higher proportion of Latinos favored abortion rights, with 63 percent saying the procedure should be legal and 35 percent saying it should not.