@logonaut.eth

Common tactic here in the Texas Rio Grande Valley: vote as a Republican but run as a Democrat. Trump's MAGA wave ended Dems' dominance here in 2024, but the red/blue calculus remains difficult to parse after a year in which the region's agriculture and construcion industries have taken a major hit due to an immigration crackdown that often pits Latino federal agents against other local Latinos. The two Latino agents who fatally shot VA nurse Alex Pretti are from here. This particular candidate featured in the oppo campaign mailer, Seby Haddad, is an interesting case. He's running for state representative as a populist — even falsely claiming on his campaign website that he was born here (nope, born in Baltimore, Maryland) — but in fact he's very tightly wired into the monied political machinery of the region ... HADDAD FAMILY NETWORK Father: Dr. Victor T. Haddad, MD 👉 General/vascular surgeon. 👉 14.34% equity holder in Lone Star National Bancshares–Texas, Inc. (per FR Y-6 filings). Stake estimated to be worth about $72 million at book value, with a reasonable market valuation range of $65M–$87M, depending on premium/discount applied. 👉 Co-founder/early investor in Doctors Hospital at Renaissance (DHR Health), alongside developer and erstwhile Bill/Hillary Clinton patron Alonzo Cantú and other physicians. Brother: Roberto “Robby” Haddad 👉 Attorney and lobbyist. 👉 VP & Counsel for Government Affairs & Policy, DHR Health. 👉 McAllen Independent School District Trustee. 👉 Briefly filed for U.S. Congress, TX-15 (2022), but withdrew before ballot certification. 👉 Inducted into the Texas Lyceum Class of 2025. It's basically the Texas version of organizations like the Council on Foreign Relations — ostensibly about serious policy discussion but actually about elite consensus-building and career advancement. Institutional Connections 👉 Lone Star National Bank (LSNB): Seby’s career is tied to family equity power; father is one of the largest shareholders. Seby has had a meteoric rise to Executive VIce President and Chief Lending Officer at the bank despite having no formal background in finance, economics, or business — he holds a bachelor's degree in Computer Information Systems and briefly worked in post-production audio and television production in New York City after university; he then returned to South Texas and joined the bank where his dad and his dad's business partner are major stakeholders. 👉 DHR Health: The Haddad family is part of its founding/ownership circle. This is a regional, physician-owned hospital system and one of the biggest players in the booming healthcare economy here. 👉 Border Health PAC: Political influence arm of DHR Health. It gives millions to Republican state officials who run Texas while its federal arm gives almost exclusively to area Democrats who vote like moderate Republicans — Rep. Henry Cuellar got a Trump pardon and voted to fund ICE; Rep. Vicente Gonzalez votes against gun control and trans rights while praising authoritarians. So the PAC's modus operandi is pure transactional politics where party loyalty takes a backseat to maintaining the regional healthcare industry's access to power at both the state and federal levels. 👉 Alonzo Cantú: Property developer, banker, co-founder of both DHR Health and Lone Star National Bank; long-standing ally of Dr. Victor Haddad and, by extension, candidate Seby. Cantú has had a reputation for being a Democratic fundraiser, but the truth is more complicated; like the Border Health PAC, he and his proxies aren't particularly partisan — they support whomever they think will best support their business interests, whether that's a nominally Democratic candidate or a nominally Republican candidate. ~~~ I expect Seby Haddad will breeze to victory in the Democratic primary and will steamroll any Republican challengers in the general. He's got charisma, shows up at community events, and has an active presence on social media. But even more importantly, he's got the connections and money that matter. https://www.texasobserver.org/rio-grande-valley-trump-2024/

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