Ever since President Joe Biden underperformed in South Texas in 2020, the GOP has fought to turn the region into a battleground. On Tuesday, Republican Mayra Flores flipped a Rio Grande Valley congressional seat — at least for now.
Sabrina Cantu, a volunteer coordinator for Mayra Flores, puts up signs outside a watch party event in San Benito on Tuesday. Flores won a special election for a Rio Grande Valley congressional seat, helping Republicans flip what's long been a Democratic stronghold., our daily newsletter that keeps readers up to speed on the most essential Texas news.
It was a blow to Flores, but in a twist of fate, nine months later, she is heading to Congress from the 34th District — and earlier than expected. She now carries the distinction of being one of the few Republicans to represent the Rio Grande Valley in modern history as well as the first Mexican-born woman to serve in Congress.June 6, 2022
“Her resources were vast and we’ve seen over and over again that sometimes it’s very hard to defeat an extremely well-funded opponent,” said state Rep.“I have yet to see a significant or even mediocre involvement by the [Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee] in South Texas,” Dominguez added. The special election was called because Vela decided to step down early to take a job at the lobbying firm Akin Gump. Vela had already announced in March 2021 he was not seeking reelection, and some Democrats wondered why Vela could not just wait several more months and finish out his term, depriving the GOP of a pickup opportunity.
TV was not the only national investment, though. The NRCC and Texas GOP put in $1.1 million for voter contact, according to an NRCC memo released Wednesday, and the state party invested $500,000 in English- and Spanish-language mail. Flores’ campaign ultimately outraised Sanchez’s by nearly 10 to 1. The $115,000 buy was a significant last-minute investment but it was perhaps too little, too late, as it followed nearly a month of GOP TV ads pitching Flores in the most flattering light.
One progressive organizer in the Rio Grande Valley, Denisce Palacios, said Flores’ strategy was a smart one — and proof that Democrats need to do more to appeal to working-class voters. Democrats were seeing a similar breakdown in their early vote — and the projected Democratic turnout was even larger when they factored in other data.
Inside Flores’ campaign, they had taken the early-vote analysis with a grain of salt, figuring that in a traditional Democratic stronghold like South Texas, even people who consider themselves Republicans participate in Democratic primaries because they are often the only competitive elections.
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