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Hidalgo County GOP Chairwoman Adrienne Peña-Garza announced a bid for the vice chairmanship of the Texas Republican Party on Monday.
A news release from Peña-Garza, who is approaching her third term as Hidalgo County GOP chair, touted her involvement with local, state and national party politics, along with her congenial relationship with the Trump family.
The release also noted Peña-Garza’s familial ties to politics — her father is former Texas State Rep. Aaron Peña — and particularly notes her experience in grassroots politics, which she says could prove incendiary on the national stage.
“Look across Texas and there you’ll see a growing number of new conservative candidates on the ballot matched by the passionate fire of an electorate infuriated by the current direction of their beloved country,” she wrote.
Peña-Garza led the county’s GOP through the Rio Grande Valley’s largest shift to the right in a generation, and her own star has risen with the prospects of other Republican hopefuls from the Valley, like District 15 candidate Monica De La Cruz Hernandez and District 34 candidate Mayra Flores. Peña-Garza’s been a subject of pieces in national outlets talking about Republican gains in the Valley, and she’s caught the eye of higher ups in the party.
Perhaps Peña-Garza’s highest profile GOP appearance was at last year’s Conservative Political Action Conference, where she participated in a panel of Conservative Latino leaders.
“We do need to be a nation of laws, and the Hispanics in our community understand that. You know, rule of law is something that is taught in our family,” Peña-Garza said at the event, replying to a question on the border. “We want to do things the right way, the legal way, and I think that’s something very unique in South Texas. We back the green, unapologetically. We back the blue, unapologetically. And we’ve been sending a message in our communities, in the barrios, sharing that just because you’re brown, just because you’re a female, does not mean you have to be Democrat.”
The GOP gaining ground locally in the traditionally staunchly blue RGV was a central thread of Peña-Garza’s announcement to run for state vice chair as well.
“Everything I’ve learned in this past decade has come from loss, withstanding the storm, staying positive, building with what we have, caring about our communities and having mentors who never gave up on our region,” she wrote. “From these humble beginnings we have generated growth and success. We have started a strong rightward movement in South Texas.”
