The National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) is recruiting former Rep. Mayra Flores (R-TX) to run for her old seat in Texas’s 34th congressional district.
Rep. Vicente Gonzalez (D-TX) defeated Flores last year, and the NRCC has made the 34th congressional seat a prime target in the upcoming elections.
The NRCC shared a poll that found Flores tied with Gonzalez and a memo that said Flores “has already proven she can win, and new polling shows she remains popular.” The memo claimed that the district is one of the better pickup opportunities as Republicans attempt to widen their House Republican majority.
The memo continued, “If Flores runs, she would begin ahead 42.4-41.7%. Among independents, her lead would grow to +19%. She wins because she is well-known (90% name ID) and popular—with 43% favorable against 29% unfavorable.”
Flores said in a statement she is “praying about a [2024 campaign] with my family, friends, and supporters, and will make a decision soon.”
“Conservatives in South Texas achieved historic gains in the 2022 election cycle, but there is still more work to do. These poll results are very encouraging, and I deeply appreciate the NRCC’s belief in our movement,” she added.
CJ Warnke, a spokesperson for the Democrats’ House Majority PAC, said, “While the NRCC tries to convince Flores to run with dubious polling, the 2022 results speak for themselves.” Warnke said that the district rejected Flores’s “extremism.”
Flores flipped the seat during the June 2022 special election, a major breakthrough as Republicans sought to flip the district in the Hispanic southern area of Texas. Redistricting made the seat more favorable to Democrats during the November midterms, which helped Gonzalez retake the seat.
After Flores’s loss in November, she blamed voters for not showing up to vote.
She wrote, “The RED WAVE did not happen. Republicans and Independents stayed home. DO NOT COMPLAIN ABOUT THE RESULTS IF YOU DID NOT DO YOUR PART!”
Flashback — Rep. Mayra Flores: Dems Think They Can Trade Tacos for Latino Votes
Sean Moran is a policy reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter @SeanMoran3.