The top Republican House candidate for Texas’ 15th Congressional district was accused of “cruel and aggressive conduct” toward her stepdaughter by her husband who is now filing for divorce.
Monica De La Cruz, the candidate of choice among Republican leaders in the House was accused of abusing her husband’s 14-year-old daughter from a previous marriage, the Washington Post reports.
Johnny Hernandez, De La Cruz’s husband, said in court documents that she would verbally abuse his daughter and pinch her to get her to stop crying.
“In one incident described in the petition for divorce, Hernandez said on a recent Sunday at church, his daughter began crying after some coffee was spilled. He alleges that De La Cruz took her to the bathroom and pinched her to stop her from crying, rather than try to console her,” the Post reported.
The couple got married in 2015 and have no biological children together, still, Hernandez said De La Cruz told him in August that if he brings the child back to their home she would divorce him.
“Unfortunately, it got to that point where I had to make a decision for the best sake of my daughter,” Hernandez told the Post. “She didn’t want to go to parenting classes, and she didn’t want to make things better for my daughter.”
Hernandez is also asking De La Cruz to stop mentioning his daughter and her health issues on the campaign trail “for sympathy votes.”
“I believe that she is putting her campaign in front of our family,” he said. “She is using my daughter for sympathy votes. My daughter is going through mental health issues, and she should not be using that on her campaign page. She needs to take that down.”
De La Cruz is insisting that the allegations against her are not true.
“These accusations are false and I’m heartbroken that as we work through some mental health issues that involve a minor, this deeply personal matter is now being exposed in the national press. My number one concern will always be the wellbeing of all of my children, and I would appreciate your prayers and continue to ask for privacy for our family,” she said in a statement to the Washington Post.
De La Cruz is running for a seat left vacant by Democratic Rep. Vicente Gonzalez Jr. Gonzalez is changing districts. She ran against him and lost by three points in 2020.
She has been endorsed by House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy who referred to her as a “young gun” meaning she has “met a series of rigorous goals and surpassed program benchmarks to establish a clear path to victory,” according to Newsweek. She was also present at a fundraiser headlined by Donald Trump earlier this week.
