When Elon Musk said he was voting Republican from now on, he wasn't kidding. He just voted for a historical candidate in my district and flipped a Democrat stronghold:
Here's the scoop.
Way back when the Democrats were the party of racism and upset that they could not hold people of color as slaves anymore--which was just earlier this week--a special election was held to fill the unexpired term of U.S. Rep Filemon Vela (D). That seat was just filled by U.S. Rep Mayra Flores (R).
Note the "R."
In addition to being Elon Musk's new home, the 34th district in Texas has been held by Democrats since 1870, not long after the final battle of the Civil War took place in this very district. In the battle of Palmito Ranch, the pro-slavery Democrats trounced the freedom-loving Republicans. Too bad the war had been over for over a month at that point.
In every election since 1870, the Democrats there have repeated the results of that battle, sending a Democrat to Capital Hill every two years.
But when Congressman Vela decided to step down and not fulfill his term, the cycle finally ended.
Meet Mayra Flores:
Congresswoman Flores is the wife of a U.S. Border Patrol agent and a Mexican immigrant whose parents brought her to the United States legally as a young child. She mostly aimed her campaign against Washington, D.C., Democrats in general. In one of her TV ads, she said the Rio Grande Valley is "under attack" at the border and promised not to let the "compadrismo" — cronyism — "in Washington ruin our communities."
In 2020, Flores was the TX Ambassador of the LEXIT movement, building off of Candace Owens's BLEXIT, and calling for Latinos to leave the Democrat party.
Republicans were eager to flip the seat because of Biden's underperformance in 2020—he carried it by 13 points, and that was underperforming; that's just how blue the district was.
Flores and her allies spent over $1 million on TV ads in the special election, while national Democrats largely stayed away, arguing it was not worth it to save a seat that will be up again in November.
One of the big challenges in November is that the Texas Republicans worked against the national party and gerrymandered the district to be more favorable to Democrats. The special election used the old district boundaries.
Still, national GOP groups were very happy with the results. Congresswoman Flores is now running as the incumbent.
The chair of the National Republican Congressional Committee, U.S. Rep. Tom Emmer of Minnesota, said the outcome was a
Referendum on Democrats' reckless policies that created a border crisis, led to record-high inflation, and sent gas prices soaring.
But the head of the Texas Democratic Party, Gilberto Hinojosa, downplayed Flores' victory in a statement, saying the GOP "could barely squeak out a win."
"In January 2023, this seat will rightfully return to Democratic hands," Hinojosa said.
Let's hope not. This is the district where I live, and it's pretty miserable living under the thumb of the Democratic Party, but I've seen a lot of signs of a change of heart lately.
I even saw a billboard like this pop up on the freeway just a few weeks ago.
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