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SAN BENITO — Mayra Flores, the San Benito Republican who made Texas history during her seven-month stint as the state’s District 34 congresswoman, has announced her 2024 bid to recapture the post she lost to U.S. Rep. Vicente Gonzalez in an election grabbing the national spotlight last year.
In her run for the November 2024 general election, Flores is standing behind her banner “God, family and country.”
“I want to protect our children’s futures,” she said in an interview after announcing her candidacy July 11. “I want to protect parents’ parental rights and stop child trafficking in this country, strengthen the economy and strengthen our borders, education and health care.”
Announcement
After her announcement, Flores’ Facebook page was buzzing under a video depicting her as the “voice of the Valley.”
“I am excited to announce that I am officially running for Congress in Texas’ 34th District,” she posted on Facebook.
“We made history last year, but there’s still work to be done here in South Texas,” she stated. “Joe Biden’s policies are running our country into the ground, and people in our communities are suffering. We have an open border controlled by the cartels who are trafficking dangerous drugs and vulnerable children. Inflation remains high, costing our families more in everyday expenses like food and clothing, and poisonous leftist ideologies are being relentlessly pushed on our young people.”
“I’m running to help restore the American Dream, secure our borders and stand strong on our values of God, family and country.”
2022 election
In a heated Nov. 8, 2022, general election drawing the national spotlight on the Rio Grande Valley amid a rising Republican push, Gonzalez, a McAllen attorney who had switched to the District 34 race after winning District 15’s congressional seat in 2017, pulled about 53 percent of the vote to defeat Flores despite heavy Republican Party support.
In her campaign, Flores carried the banner “God, family, country,” symbolizing the Republicans’ drive into the traditionally Democratic Valley, where the GOP has made inroads among Mexican-Americans in the last few years.
Portraying herself as a symbol of the American dream, she became the first Mexican-born woman to win a congressional seat and the first Republican in more than 150 years to represent District 34, stretching from Brownsville and Harlingen into Hidalgo County to the brushlands south of Corpus Christi.
Background
On the campaign trail, Flores weaved the fabric of the American dream into her life’s story.
Born in Burgos, Mexico, about 150 miles south of Reynosa, she was 6 years old when she left home, with her father helping her come to the United States.
At 13, she was working with her parents in the Texas Panhandle’s cotton fields, learning to work hard to help pay for her school supplies and clothes, she said at the time.
By 2004, she had graduated from San Benito High School.
Ten years later, she became a respiratory care practitioner.
In 2019, she graduated from South Texas College with a bachelor’s degree in organizational leadership.
District 34
After District 34 was created as a result of the 2010 Census’s population boost, Democrat Filemon Vela, a Brownsville attorney, won its first election in 2012.
Now, the district covers 11 counties, including parts of Cameron, Hidalgo and Willacy.
