A deep-blue Home district in South Texas turned shiny pink following a particular election Tuesday — suggesting November’s midterms may very well be much more profitable for Republicans than beforehand thought.
Mexico-born GOPer Mayra Flores stormed to victory with 51% of the vote within the four-person race to succeed outgoing Democratic Rep. Filemon Vela. Democrat Dan Sanchez, Vela’s decide to observe him in Congress, got here in second with simply 43.3% of the vote.
The end result in a district the place 85% of the residents are Latino — and which Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton received by greater than 20 share factors within the 2012 and 2016 presidential elections, respectively — despatched shockwaves by the political panorama.
“That is kind of how I felt seeing a number of the shifts in Appalachia in 2010, or blue collar areas in 2016,” RealClearPolitics senior elections analyst Sean Trende tweeted because the outcomes rolled in Tuesday evening. “Besides this I genuinely didn’t assume I’d see for an additional 20 years or so. Simply astonishing.”
Indicators of a rightward shift within the district appeared within the 2020 election, when President Biden solely defeated Donald Trump by 4 share factors, and Flores paid tribute to the forty fifth president in her victory speech.
“We can't settle for the rise [in the price] of gasoline, of meals, of remedy, we can't settle for that. And we've to state the information, that beneath President Trump, we didn't have this mess on this nation,” she informed a cheering crowd.
Flores, who's married to a Border Patrol agent, ran closely on border safety and was strongly backed by the Republican Nationwide Committee — spending greater than $1 million on TV adverts introducing herself to voters, based on the Texas Tribune. Because of this, she grew to become the primary Republican to characterize any a part of the Rio Grande Valley since 1870.
“Congratulations to Mayra Flores, the following Congresswoman for TX-34! Mayra is main the cost for Republicans who're working to flip South Texas pink,” RNC chair Ronna McDaniel mentioned in an announcement. “She is a fierce conservative who will make the RGV proud, and we are going to proceed working to reelect her in November.”
Flores additionally earned the assist of her most well-known new constituent, Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who owns a house in in Boca Chica — a part of the district that snakes up the Gulf coast between Brownsville and Corpus Christi earlier than turning inward into rural South Texas.
“I awakened this morning nonetheless feeling surreal from all the pieces that’s occurred over the past 24 hours,” Flores tweeted Wednesday. “Incomes Elon Musk’s vote was simply the icing on the cake and I can’t wait to work along with his group! The American Dream is price combating for.”
Flores received’t have lengthy to serve in Congress. As she finishes the rest of Vela’s time period, she should run to maintain her seat in opposition to Rep. Vicente Gonzalez. The redrawn thirty fourth District might be extra pleasant to Democrats, who cited the low-turnout nature of Tuesday’s particular election and the cash behind Flores to downplay her victory.
“Based mostly on the outcomes, we got here up brief tonight regardless of being outspent by tens of millions of dollars from out of state pursuits and your complete Republican machine,” Sanchez mentioned in his concession assertion. “Too many components have been in opposition to us, together with little to no assist from the Nationwide Democratic Get together and the Democratic Congressional Marketing campaign Committee.”
However with Republicans on the assault on this midterm season, Tuesday’s victory is an indication of what’s potential for them on Nov. 8.
“The brand new ‘actuality’ is way more Biden +4 than Clinton +21 and even Vela +13 (which occurred in 2020),” elections analyst Kyle Kondik tweeted Tuesday evening. “Some caveats … tiny turnout, R candidate a lot better funded. However to me these are issues that solely clarify a lot today.”
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