The 28-year-old AOC-backed candidate facing a run-off against centrist Democrat Rep. Henry Cuellar had a long-term affair with her former high school teacher.
Jessica Cisneros was in a sexual relationship with educator-turned-lawyer John Balli, now 51, and called him ‘babe’ in a 2011 text professing her love when she was 18 — and he was 41.
The ultra-liberal would-be Congresswoman began a sexual relationship with him after he began dating his future second wife Sandra Ramirez in May 2011. But the secret lovers had a painful split when Balli and Ramirez wed in July 2014.
However that marriage ended in divorce in October last year — and Ramirez, 49, is now slamming Cisneros for helping to destroy it.
She believes the congressional hopeful and Balli rekindled their affair in 2019 when the ex-
teacher nominated his former student for her first shot at running against Cuellar in the 2020 Democratic primary for Texas’ 28th district.
Ramirez claimed adultery in her divorce petition obtained by DailyMail.com. However, it does not name any woman and her ex-husband denied the allegation in his formal response, court papers show.
But she told a close friend: ‘I hate Jessica Cisneros. She was responsible for the break-up of my marriage. She could never look me in the eye.
‘How can she say she’s is fighting for women’s rights, including being pro-abortion, when she betrayed another woman. How can she do that?
‘It was an insane relationship because he was her teacher. She is much younger, 23 years.’
Ramirez also told the friend she suspected her ex-husband and Cisneros were still seeing each other.
DailyMail.com’s exclusive revelations follow Cisneros forcing Cuellar, 66, into a May run-off for the Democratic nomination for Texas’ 28th district, which spans an area from San Antonio to her home city of Laredo.
She trailed by just 767 votes in the March 1 primary in her second bid to oust one of the anti-abortion congressmen who is the most conservative Democrats in the House.
Cuellar, 66, who is running for his 10th term in Congress, has been mired in his own scandal. The FBI raided his home and campaign office in January as part of an investigation into ties with the autocratic leader of the former Soviet republic of Azerbaijan.
Cisneros, a human rights lawyer born to hard-working Mexican parents Jose and Ramona, is backed by far-left Democrat Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez who flew down to Texas to endorse her campaign. And she would be a potential recruit to join AOC in the progressive ‘Squad’ if elected.
She once worked as an intern in Cuellar’s office. Now, er campaign message plastered on billboards around Laredo is: ‘Give me the opportunity and I will respond with actions not words.’
But her strong Christian beliefs sit in stark contrast with her secret affair, which Ramirez eventually discovered.
Balli taught Cisneros computer science at Early College High School in Laredo and helped her through her application to the University of Texas for her undergraduate degree.
She was studying there in 2011 when she sent him a text on September 23 saying: ‘Babe. I’m waiting for my bio class to start….And you know, I have come across the realization of something extremely strange. I love you.’
Cisneros sent the message when she was 18, while the Texas age of consent is 17. It was four months after Balli and Ramirez had started a relationship following their introduction in an online dating site.
In a further text, also seen by DailyMail.com, an 18-year-old Cisneros writes on October 26, 2011: ‘I love you so, so, so, so, so, so much, baby!
‘You make me incredibly happy, like you have no idea. Whenever I’m with you or talk to you, I just don’t want to stop; I don’t want to sleep…you make me feel so loved, so wanted…
‘We equal INFINITY sweetheart!… I honestly cannot describe how great I feel know that you love me back. It’s the best feeling in the world.
‘Want to know what the next best feeling in the world is? Being in your arms! Hearing your breath going in and out of your body. Listening to your heart beating against your chest. Taking in your scent. Seeing your intoxicating smile that melts me to my core….reaffirming that I am yours and you are mine forever.’
