HIDALGO COUNTY, Texas (KVEO) — The new congressional districts for Texas have been approved for the midterm elections next year and the Rio Grande Valley’s representation could change as a result.

In response, LUPE Votes is launching their ‘We the Pueblo’ campaign to encourage people to nominate members of the community to run for Congress.

If you have someone you’d like to nominate, you can do so here.

“District 15 just got redrawn to be a plus three Republican district,” said Danny Diaz, an organizer of LUPE. “And to make matters even more difficult for our people, the current congressman Vicente Gonzalez, we feel that he abandoned the district for district 34.”

District 15 comprises most people in Hidalgo County and has voted Democrat since the start of the 20th century. The 2020 election was the closest in its history and experts say it will be another tight race next year.

“We feel that we have to step up at this moment when establishment Democrats are leaving us vulnerable and when GOP and Republican politicians are trying to target our area as a Republican district.”

Diaz said the idea behind ‘We the Pueblo’ is to get community members excited and feel better connected with their representatives.

He said that people want someone they perceive to really be supportive of the Valley. “Somebody that, yeah, that person is from here that person will really represent me, this person gets my culture, my community,” Diaz said.

Anyone who is eligible to run for Congress and lives in district 15 can be nominated. In order to be eligible to run for Congress, you have to be over 25 years old, have been a U.S. citizen for at least seven years, and live in the state where you will be a representative.

Diaz says LUPE is looking for ordinary people to step up and lead for their community.

“Regular folks, working-class folks that are paying the bills, that are providing for their families, traditionally don’t have the opportunities to run for Congress,” he said. “We really want to open that up so more people could potentially see themselves doing this.”

The deadline to nominate someone is November 20th and candidates must announce their intent to run by December 13.