Texas Republican Mayra Flores this past summer won the special election to fill the seat vacated outgoing Democratic Rep. Filemón Vela, flipping the seat red. Flores in that race narrowly beat attorney Dan Sanchez, who has since endorsed Rep. Vincente Gonzalez as Flores now seeks reelection to a full term. Gonzalez represented a nearby district, but his home was moved under new lines.
The race is close, with the new lines also making Flores’ district far more blue. In fact, Daily Kos Elections has called Flores “the most endangered Republican incumbent in 2022.” Now The Monitor is among outlets to report that fake texts purporting to be from Sanchez “began flooding voters’ phones on the eve before Election Day,” falsely claiming he’s now endorsing Flores. “That’s a bold-faced lie,” Sanchez has slammed.
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It’s unclear who sent the fake texts, and various outlets reported that they tried to reach the Flores campaign for comment but heard nothing in response. One outlet reported that Sanchez is considering suing Flores, who as we recently noted has a history of tomfoolery under her belt during this short time in the U.S. House so far.
Even though House Republicans have their own Latino caucus, Flores last month attempted to join House Democrats’ caucus. Rules explicitly forbid this, so Flores was denied. But since most folks aren’t aware of the existence of different groups, their political membership, and rules—and Flores curiously neglected to mention any of that in the meme she then tweeted—it looked as if that mean caucus had just unfairly turned away the first Mexican-born woman in Congress. Outrage ensued.
When it comes to the false texts sent out in Sanchez’s name, he said he was also on the receiving end of outrage when he began to messages from people wondering why in the world he’d ditched Gonzalez.
”My phone started blowing up with text messages and phone calls saying, ‘Hey, you turned on Vicente? Hey, why did you turn? Why aren’t you supporting Vicente anymore?’” Sanchez told The Monitor. “I started getting screenshots of these text messages. I said, absolutely not. I’m hundred percent behind Vicente. These are lies from the Mayra camp.” Gonzalez did not appear to directly blame the Flores campaign but did call it “a disgrace,” telling The Monitor “the misinformation that has occurred in this campaign has been just massive at every level.”
Flores’ supposed reasoning for trying to join Democrats’ caucus was to foster bipartisanship, yet she’s repeatedly refused to directly state whether President Joe Biden is the legitimate president. "He's the worst president of the United States," she claimed in The New York Times. 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. Pals like Stefanik say a lot about Flores. Valley Central reports that Sanchez may be going to court over the false texts.
“Well, you know, this, this has defamed me, because I have gotten all kinds of phone calls and text messages from people saying, ‘Hey, how could you turn your back on Vicente? How could you switch if you had an event for him? You know, that’s not good for you to be a turncoat. What are you talking about?,” he told the outlet.
“You know, so my reputation has been bruised by this because there are people out there that support me that are supporting Vicente and think that I turned my back on him,” he continued. The Monitor reported that the texts came from a San Antonio number that was busy when it attempted contact.
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