Texas Rep. Mayra Flores is fitting in quite nicely with Republicans despite having just a few months of elected experience under her belt. Even though she flipped the seat vacated by Democrat Filemon Vela just this past June, she’s mastered the double whammy of both duping her supporters and transforming herself into a victim.
In a tweet from her congressional account this week, Flores complained that she’d been rejected from membership in the influential Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC). Taken in good faith, this would seem outrageous. Flores represents south Texas, and is the first Mexican-born woman in Congress. Not to mention that several Texas lawmakers are also caucus members. What gives? But, shocker, Flores’ outrage was not in good faith.
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What Flores didn’t outright state in the meme she tweeted is that House Democrats and House Republicans each have their own Latino caucuses. While the CHC was initially bipartisan, it’s been made up solely of Democrats for decades. In fact, that’s its official rule, a spokesperson tells Latino Rebels. House Republicans, meanwhile, launched their Congressional Hispanic Conference nearly two decades ago, which is today chaired by Florida’s Mario Díaz-Balart.
But for whatever reasons (actually, I do have some reasons, we’ll get to those soon), Flores sought to join the House Democrats’ caucus, where, again, rules explicitly forbid GOP membership. When she was then unsurprisingly rejected, she rushed to Twitter to complain about “bias towards conservative Latinas that don’t fit their narrative or ideology.” While she linked in her official tweet to a right-wing outlet’s report that stated that House Republicans have their own caucus, someone would have to, you know, actually click it and read it to know that. But this is Twitter.
Instead, Flores was banking on her supporters not getting any further than the meme—which again, didn’t mention any of the above—and getting pissed about those hypocritical Demoncats campaigning on unity and then rejecting a Latina congresswoman! Disgraceful! Blatant racism! Demonic! Those are all real responses, by the way.
“Flores said she’d hoped to join the caucus as a way to work across the aisle and foster bipartisanship, she said in her tweet,” Latino Rebels reported. That’s an interesting claim. How can she foster bipartisanship with Democrats when she won’t even acknowledge that President Joe Biden won the presidency? Just a month after her own election, Flores four times refused to directly state whether Biden is the legitimate president. "He's the worst president of the United States," she claimed in The New York Times. But she’s sure loving those federal dollars she’s now touting on Twitter.
Why would Flores seek to cook up a situation where she’s the victim? Well, it is the Republican way. But Flores is also the most endangered Republican incumbent in 2022, Daily Kos Elections said this month. So, why not get the right all riled up and lots of retweets and likes in the process about a completely made-up issue rather than tackling, you know, issues?
Aside from refusing to state that Biden is the legitimate president, Flores also proudly accepted the endorsement of election denier Elise Stefanik, who pushed racist conspiracy theories later espoused by a racist mass shooter in her state. “Flores has so far managed to avoid tough questions about her Republican friends in leadership and her constituents deserve straight answers,” America’s Voice said following her June win. The immigrant rights advocacy group has featured Flores in its bilingual “Show Me Your Friends” campaign tying candidates like Flores to extremists like Stefanik.
“Does Mayra Flores embrace or reject the white nationalist replacement theory and invasion rhetoric espoused by GOP leaders like Elise Stefanik and embraced by several terrorists who have murdered scores of Americans over the last few years, including 23 people in Texas?” America’s Voice asked. It’s a question we’d all like to hear her answer. But she’s instead too busy working her supporters into a tizzy about getting rejected from a caucus neither she nor any Republican is eligible to join in the first place.
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