Rising Republican star Mayra Flores was sworn into Congress on Tuesday after she flipped a crucial House seat in the GOP’s favor and set the stage for a competitive midterm election that will help determine which party controls Congress in the next term.
It was a historic day on Capitol Hill for Flores, who beat out Democratic challenger Dan Sanchez in a special election June 14 to finish Rep. Filemon Vela’s (D) term representing Texas’s 34th Congressional District, and she was joined by top members of the Republican caucus to tout her plans in Washington.
DEMOCRATS FROSTY TO GOP REP.-ELECT MAYRA FLORES WHILE FIGHTING AMONG THEMSELVES
“I will give a voice to the voiceless to say that the people who live and work in South Texas have had enough,” Flores said at the GOP media availability after she was sworn in. “We want to be heard, and we are tired of being taken for granted and treated like second-class citizens.”
Flores is the first Mexico-born congresswoman, and her victory serves as evidence of the Republican Party’s gains with Hispanic voters, who are often considered to be a crucial voting bloc for Democrats. However, the newly turned red seat in a reliably blue district shows growing momentum for the GOP, especially after former President Donald Trump made significant gains in heavily Hispanic counties in South Texas during the 2020 election compared to 2016.
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Flores had pitched herself as a Latina conservative unafraid of discussing border politics — her husband is a Border Patrol agent — and immigration.
“My father, Saul Flores, moved us to the United States because of the promise of America. He told me in this country, if you work hard, you can accomplish anything. My story proves he is right. But right now, our people are struggling,” she said. “I will give them the voice they need. I will use it to say our lives are not a game. Our people deserve to have an opportunity, security, and freedom. I will work every day to give it to them.”
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Flores will also appear on the November ballot to maintain the seat, facing Rep. Vicente Gonzalez (D), who ditched a reelection bid for his current House seat after a new Republican-drawn redistricting map made it difficult to win. Gonzalez announced that he would not participate in the special election, which left Democrats scrambling for a candidate to finish out Vela’s term.
By contrast, Republicans went all in on the race, outspending Democrats in an effort to turn a congressional seat red that has been blue for decades. President Joe Biden carried Flores’s South Texas district by only 4 percentage points in 2020.
