Usually when a politician speaks to an auditorium full of children, neither party wants to be there: the kids can’t vote, and listening to an adult drone on(唠叨不休，喋喋不休) is boring. But when Bobby Pulido, the Democratic nominee for Congress in Texas’s 15th district, showed up at Beethoven Elementary, the children cheered and held up his picture. The school’s teachers, caretakers and lunch ladies filled out the sides of the auditorium and lined up for selfies after the speech. That was not because they were wonk(政策专家；书呆子（尤指政客）)s or ardent(热心的；热情洋溢的) Democrats.
通常，当一位政治家对着满礼堂的孩子讲话时，双方都不愿意待在那里：孩子们不能投票，听成年人喋喋不休很无聊。但当德克萨斯州第15选区的民主党国会候选人博比·普利多出现在贝多芬小学时，孩子们欢呼雀跃，举起他的照片。学校的老师、护理人员和午餐阿姨挤满礼堂两侧，并在演讲后排队自拍。这并不是因为他们是政策书呆子或热心的民主党人。
Before Mr Pulido entered politics, he won two Latin Grammy awards. In the Rio Grande Valley (rgv), Texas’s southernmost tip, he is so famous that walking with him from a restaurant’s front door to a table takes a while because of all the people who stop him. Polling is scant(不足的；缺乏的), and Donald Trump won this district by 18 points in 2024. But even if Mr Pulido loses (as our forecast model strongly suggests he will), a good showing(表现；成绩) in TX-15 would offer lessons for future Democratic candidates.
在普利多先生从政之前，他赢得过两项拉丁格莱美奖。在德克萨斯州最南端的里奥格兰德河谷（RGV），他如此出名，以至于和他一起从餐厅门口走到餐桌需要一段时间，因为总有人拦住他。民调很少，唐纳德·特朗普在2024年以18个百分点的优势赢得这个选区。但即使普利多先生输了（正如我们的预测模型强烈暗示的那样），在TX-15选区的良好表现将为未来的民主党候选人提供借鉴。
First, candidate and district match well. Mr Pulido was born, brought up(抚养长大；成长) and still lives in Edinburg, one of the rgv’s bigger cities. Like most of his constituents(选民；选区居民), he is Latino and bilingual, and lacks a college degree; like many of them, he does not have health insurance, and must cross the border to see a doctor. His two uncles were long-serving local elected officials.
首先，候选人与选区非常匹配。普利多先生出生、长大并仍居住在爱丁堡，这是RGV较大的城市之一。与他的大多数选民一样，他是拉丁裔、双语，没有大学学位；和他们中许多人一样，他没有健康保险，必须过境去看医生。他的两位叔叔是长期任职的地方民选官员。