Rep. Mayra Flores (R-TX) slammed the New York Times after an article from the publication labeled her and fellow Texas Republican Congressional candidates Monica De La Cruz and Cassy Garcia “far right” Latinas.
Flores won the special election in the 34th Congressional District on June 14, flipping the Democrat seat in the densely Hispanic district by running on a platform of core conservative values, indicating a turning tide among Hispanic voters away from the Democrat party. The victory made her “the first Republican to represent the Rio Grande Valley in roughly 150 years,” Breitbart News previously reported.
In a Wednesday article titled “The Rise of the Far-Right Latina” New York Times politics reporter Jennifer Medina wrote of Flores in addition to De La Cruz and Garcia, who are nominees in the 15th and the 28th Congressional Districts, respectively. The subheading in the piece states that “Flores is one of three Republican Latinas vying to transform South Texas politics by shunning moderates and often embracing the extreme.”
“But what is most striking is that Ms. Flores won by shunning moderates, embracing the far right and wearing her support for Donald J. Trump on her sleeve — more Marjorie Taylor Greene than Kay Bailey Hutchison,” Medina writes later in the piece.
I was born in Burgos, Tamaulipas, Mexico, and raised with strong Conservative values to always put God and Family first. I have received only hate from the liberal media and constantly [been] told by the left to [sic] back to Mexico. They don’t support us immigrants, they only use us for political power and don’t care about our well-being. I am here now and I won’t allow them to continue taking advantage of my people. The NYT knows nothing about me or our culture. Somos gente de Dios, Familia y Travajo [We are people of God, Family and Work], Si Señor!
Garcia, who is squaring off against Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-TX) in the 28th Congressional District, retweeted a picture of the headline and stated that when the “Radical Left” targets her “for [her] faith and supporting school choice,” they are also “attacking millions of Hispanic families and [her] community.”
“I will never stop fighting for our values,” she added.
Both the 34th and 28th Districts neighbor the 15th District and sit on the U.S.-Mexico border in Southern Texas. All three districts have dense Hispanic populations and the National Republican Congressional Committee has dubbed the trio of Flores, De La Cruz, and Garcia “the Triple Threat.”
Flores’ nearly eight-point win over Democrat candidate Dan Sanchez on June 14 indicates Hispanic voters are moving toward conservative candidates. The exodus from the Democrat party is further evidenced by voting patterns in the past two presidential elections in Hildago County, which is part of the 15th Congressional District where De La Cruz is running, as Breitbart News noted:
Before the three South Texas women took the spotlight, Hidalgo provided one of the first warning signs for Democrats that they did not have the grip they had perhaps anticipated on Hispanic voters.
[Former President Donald] Trump lost Hidalgo by 41 points in 2016, but he lost by just 17 in 2020, indicating Republicans had started to make significant inroads there. Then, leaving no question that Democrats had reason for concern, McAllen residents elected a Republican mayor, Javier Villalobos, in 2021.