When redistricting cut into the Democrats’ advantage in District 15, U.S. Rep. Vicente Gonzalez opted to throw down a challenge in District 34 to the east, which actually increased his party’s numbers in the redistricting.
The strategy paid off.
Gonzalez defeated District 34 incumbent Republican U.S. Rep. Mayra Flores 53 percent to 43 percent with just under 100,000 ballots cast.
The McAllen attorney said Republican financial support for Flores totaled about $7 million, unprecedented for District 34, he claimed.
“Clearly, this was a hard message we sent to Washington — South Texas cannot be bought,” the Democrat said at his victory party the night of Nov. 8.
Flores, a respiratory care practitioner for a home-health agency, won a special election against Democrat Dan Sanchez in June to fill the seat of retiring U.S. Rep. Filemon Vela, a Democrat.
She became the first Mexican-born woman to be elected to Congress and the first Republican in more than 150 years to represent District 34, which now stretches from Brownville and Harlingen, into Hidalgo County, and north to just south of Corpus Christi.
“I am their worst nightmare. All of a sudden, an immigrant, a woman, a mother is dangerous,” Flores said at a pre-election rally in Harlingen with U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz.
“They’ve been claiming all these years that they’re for people like me. But the moment that we fight for the values that we were raised with, do they not know that in Mexico you’re raised with some conservative values? I was raised to always put God and family first, and I’m not willing to put that aside for their political party,” Flores said at the time.
