In the season of desperation and dirty tricks that marks the weeks before election, Republican Rep. Mayra Flores of Texas is fighting back.
Recently, a report from Fox News blew the whistle on Democratic Rep. Vicente Gonzalez, who is running against Flores, for an edited photo of Flores.
The photo used by Gonzalez in a re-election ad is similar to one that Flores used on her Instagram account in January. However, the photo used by the Gonzalez campaign darkened and extended Flores’s eyebrows, giving her face a starkly different cast.
Flores said voters will not be misled.
“First, Vicente Gonzalez hired a racist blogger to attack me for my heritage. Now Vicente is doing the dirty work himself with this shameless and pathetic photoshopping,” Flores said.
First, Vicente Gonzalez hired a racist blogger to attack me for my heritage. Now Vicente is doing the dirty work himself with this shameless and pathetic photoshopping. https://t.co/5cMNOGQsyU pic.twitter.com/DukV8Wc1ZC
— Mayra Flores (@MayraFlores2022) October 12, 2022
“The people in the [Rio Grande Valley] are smarter than this and will see right through Vicente’s scare tactics and constant lies,” Flores told Fox News.
Flores was referring to comments from Texas political blogger Jerry McHale who called her “Miss Frijoles” and “Miss Enchiladas,” according to KERA-TV.
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He said she was “playing the race card” and was a “cotton pickin’ liar” when she spoke of picking cotton with her parents, who legally emigrated from Mexico to the U.S. when Flores was a child.
An analysis of campaign finance statements showed that Gonzalez’s campaign gave McHale $2,200 since October of 2021.
Flores told the Texas Tribune said she was “disgusted that Vicente Gonzalez has hired a creepy blogger to attack my Mexican heritage and sexually degrade me, but I won’t let this distract me from my work.”
“Vicente Gonzalez is an example of everything that’s wrong with Washington. He doesn’t have a record to stand on,” she said.
The race pits two incumbents against each other through a quirk of redistricting. Gonzalez currently represents the 15th Congressional District. Flores won a special election this summer to represent the 34th District, making history along the way as the first member of Congress born in Mexico. The two are now competing for the 34th District, which has been redrawn.
Earlier in the campaign, the Cook Political Report said the race leaned toward the Democratic Party. It has since been put in the Republican toss-up category.
Flores recently noted that her campaign is about more than which party controls the House.
“It’s not about just Republican or Democrat, it really is about good versus evil. It really is,” she said, according to My RGV News.
“Do not allow this government to shame you for who you are. Do not allow this government to shame you for your Christian values. This nation is a Christian country. That is who we are,” she said.
