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In many ways all roads lead here for the congresswoman and would-be spokesperson for the GOP’s growing popularity among Hispanics.
U.S. Rep. Monica De La Cruz, R-McAllen, is slated to address the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee on Wednesday, when she’s expected to address border security issues she and her Republican counterparts have long-deemed “Biden’s border crisis,” and calling on voters to elect Donald Trump back to the Oval Office.
Saturday’s announcement came via news release to The Monitor as well as on her social media pages, where De La Cruz said she wanted South Texas to “hear it directly from me.”
“I’ll explain how Joe Biden has destroyed the American Dream and how we can revive it for our children by re-electing President Trump,” she said via Facebook. “I’m honored by this opportunity — I will make us proud. Thank you!”
The first Latina Republican to be elected to the 15th congressional district in Texas, De La Cruz’s appearance before a national television audience at the RNC on Wednesday is something of a milestone not just for the GOP, but for the South Texas region.
Anyone who follows political news knows that much has been made of Trump’s 2020 reelection bid garnering a surge in Republican votes in the Valley — more specifically Starr County — despite the region being traditionally blue.
It was a time when the transcendent characteristics of Trump’s campaign and road to the White House in 2016 attracted Hispanics to his base.
Then there was the election of Javier Villalobos, a Republican, to the McAllen mayoral office in 2021 in addition to growing support for De La Cruz and Mayra Flores (in Texas’ 34th congressional district) that gave national media outlets and political pundits all the ammo needed to suggest that a red wave had arrived in the Valley.
It didn’t hurt that the congressional boundaries were redrawn in 2022 — when De La Cruz was elected — to move U.S. Rep. Vicente Gonzalez’s residence to the 34th district, and more historically Republican counties into the 15th.
De La Cruz’s RNC appearance Wednesday will not necessarily be a culmination of the Republican plight growing in the Valley, because it’s always been here, but a flag in the ground marking progress.
For the congresswoman, it’s an opportunity to introduce her story to the nation.
“My grandparents came to this country from Mexico to work hard and raise their family in freedom,” she said in a statement. “Never in their wildest dreams did they imagine that their granddaughter would one day have the opportunity to address the nation at the Republican National Convention. It is truly the honor of a lifetime and my story is the American Dream come true.”
When it came to President Biden, the Brownsville native and Edinburg resident, as always, didn’t mince words.
“Unfortunately, Joe Biden’s administration has turned the American Dream into a nightmare for countless families with his reckless open border and inflationary economic policies,” De La Cruz said. “Enough is enough. I look forward to making the case for why we need President Donald Trump to fix our economy and restore law and order at the southern border.”
