The 2020 primary battle has started early for Rep. Henry Cuellar, a Laredo Democrat with conservative leanings who hasn’t had a serious challenge in more than 10 years.

Justice Democrats, the group that recruited freshman firebrand Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to run for office in New York, announced earlier this month that ousting Cuellar will be its top priority in the 2020 primary elections, calling him a “fake Democrat.”

“We’re now leading a grassroots candidate recruitment effort to find a real Democrat to run against Cuellar,” the group said. That effort also includes a “Primary Cuellar Fund” to raise small-dollar donations, though the group has not said whether any candidates have stepped forward or how much money the fund has raised in its first few weeks.

Cuellar has been one of the least liberal members of his caucus since he arrived in the House of Representatives in 2005. He is a member of the fiscally-conservative Blue Dog Coalition and has supported the oil and gas industries — his 28th Congressional District, which stretches from San Antonio’s East Side to Laredo, includes part of the Eagle Ford Shale reserves.

His support for oil is a particularly egregious transgression for liberal groups like Justice Democrats that are pushing a wholesale diversion from fossil fuels. The group lists a “Green New Deal” as the first item of its platform, describing the program as meeting 100 percent of power demands with renewable energy sources.

“He’s ideologically a pretty obvious choice for them to target,” said Walter Wilson, a professor of political science at the University of Texas at San Antonio, where he studies American politics and legislatures.

In targeting Cuellar, Justice Democrats also pointed to his A-rating from the National Rifle Association last year and his 68.8 percent “Trump Score,” a tracker from the news site FiveThirtyEight that monitors how often members vote in line with the president’s interests. Cuellar’s score was the highest among House Democrats last Congress.

Cuellar’s team said his moderate tendencies on Capitol Hill are reflective of his constituents, and that he doesn’t cast votes based on political metrics.

“We feel that we know the district pretty well, and we feel that his voting pattern reflects the diversity and the values of the district,” said Colin Strother, his campaign manager. “This isn’t some liberal stronghold. There’s a lot of oil and gas, a lot of hunting and fishing in this district.”

The congressman is popular among his colleagues and a prolific fundraiser. He also has a spot on the powerful appropriations committee charged with writing the federal budget. Strother said Cuellar has leveraged that position to pour millions of dollars into San Antonio, including for the Mission Reach and San Pedro Creek projects.

“In a relatively low-turnout affair like a Texas primary, where only the most energized voters turn out, I think anyone could be vulnerable,” Wilson said.

The congressman himself got to Washington after toppling an incumbent in a primary. He won a bitter and incredibly narrow victory over San Antonian Ciro Rodriguez in 2004.

Cuellar has mostly eluded electoral challenges since then. He hasn’t faced a serious primary opponent in more than a decade.

The congressman’s camp also points to his leadership position in the House of Representatives. He is the second-most senior member of the Bexar County delegation, the only Texas Democrat on appropriations and a senior whip under Rep. James Clyburn, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s top deputy. He is also the only border delegate on the congressional conference negotiating border security.

“He holds some very, very important committee assignments, and he’s a pretty senior member of the leadership at this point,” Strother said. “It’d be a huge loss for Bexar County and the entire region” if he were unseated.

But Justice Democrats hasn’t shied from targeting senior leadership in the past. The organization helped propel several newcomers to Congress over popular and long-serving incumbents in 2018.

Ocasio-Cortez’s win over Joe Crowley, then one of the highest-ranking Democratic congressmen, was the most eye-popping upset. The group also backed Rep. Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts in her victory over Michael Capuano, who had been in Congress for 20 years.

Justice Democrats said it would look for “a progressive, working class leader who will better represent the policy preferences of the Democratic base in the district.”

They have time. The filing deadline for the March 2020 primary elections isn’t until December.

Dylan McGuinness covers local politics and the Bexar County government for the Express-News. Read him on our free site, mySA.com, and on our subscriber site, ExpressNews.com. | dylan.mcguinness@express-news.net | Twitter: @DylMcGuinness