A Texas rematch: Republican Mayra Flores aims to beat Democrat Vicente Gonzalez for U.S. House seat

From left: U.S. Rep. Vicente Gonzalez, D-McAllen, is facing a challenge from former U.S. Rep. Mayra Flores in Texas' 34th Congressional District. Flores briefly represented the district after winning a special election in July 2022. (Credit: Michael Gonzalez for The Texas Tribune)

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BROWNSVILLE —U.S. Reps. Vicente Gonzalez and Mayra Flores are once again battling to represent a portion of South Texas and each are promising to improve the economy and curb the flow of migrants through the border — albeit with very different tactics.

The race for Texas' 34th congressional district, is a rematch that both major political parties want to win. Republicans are spending heavily. Despite those efforts, Gonzalez, the incumbent, continues to project confidence.

The rematch is among the few competitive congressional races in Texas, and one of the closest watched in the U.S. as both major political parties seek control of the House. It’s part of an effort by the GOP to win more support among Hispanic voters, who dominate South Texas and the borderland.

Both parties have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on the race that has focused on key issues such as the economy and immigration. The candidates are expected to meet for their only televised debate of the fall Thursday.

“Let's talk about each one of those issues in depth," Gonzalez said in an interview with The Texas Tribune.

The Flores campaign declined an interview request.

[Republicans feature 9/11 conspiracy theorist in South Texas ads]

Flores, 38, briefly represented the district after she won a special election in July 2022. At the time, Gonzalez, 57, represented a neighboring district. However, state lawmakers redrew the state’s congressional maps following the 2020 census. In redrawing the South Texas boundaries, state lawmakers drew Gonzalez, who lives in McAllen, into the new District 34, which was more competitive for Republicans.

Gonzalez beat Flores in the 2022 general election by 8.5 percentage points.

District 34 is located at the southeast corner of the state, along the Gulf Coast. It includes Brownsville and Harlingen in Cameron County and stretches west into parts of Hidalgo County to include some parts of McAllen, Edinburg and Pharr. Its borders run north to include Kingsville. About 87% of the residents are Hispanic and 12% are non-Hispanic white.

Gonzalez, an attorney, was first elected to Congress in 2016 to replace long-time congressman, U.S. Rep. Ruben Hinojosa. Hinojosa retired after 20 years in office.

Gonzalez, a moderate Democrat, said he wants to focus on continuing to lower prescription drug prices, provide more resources for veterans and create jobs through infrastructure projects.

During his time in Congress, Gonzalez has voted for increased funding for border security efforts such as additional personnel or equipment. He’s also supported more funding for cities and nonprofits along the border that provide migrant services. He’s also been heavily involved in negotiations with Mexican officials over the country’s compliance with a 1944 water treaty. The treaty requires both countries to release water into international reservoirs but Mexico has fallen short, exacerbating a devastatingly dry season for farmers.

Flores, who is Mexican-born, has drawn from her background as an immigrant to oppose illegal immigration. She also has denounced the large number of migrants seeking asylum, which has inflamed the debate over immigration nationwide.

During her brief time in office, Flores authored legislation that would have authorized U.S. Customs and Border Protection to provide air and marine support to foreign governments to prevent drug smuggling into the U.S. and would have made it a crime to destroy or significantly damage border security infrastructure or devices. She also authored a bill to increase security on school campuses and increase mental health resources in response to gun violence at schools.

Neither bill passed.

The issues

Both campaigns have focused on the economy though they each paint a different picture.

During a meet and greet with supporters in the district in September, Flores raised a popular rhetorical question among Republicans over whether constituents were financially better off today than they were four years ago when President Joe Biden took office.

“Ask yourself, do you have more money in your pockets now or did you have more money in your pockets four years ago? That’s all you need to ask yourself," Flores said.

Mayra Flores speaks with supporters at a rally in Harlingen on Oct. 5. Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson attended the event to campaign for Flores. (Credit: Michael Gonzalez for The Texas Tribune)

By contrast, Gonzalez pointed to cooling inflation and the low unemployment rate which is currently sitting at 4.1%, adding that the U.S. is leading the world in post-pandemic recovery.

“We can always improve and there's always things that we can do better but overall, things are not that bad for the American people," Gonzalez said in an interview.

Republicans are also hitting hard on the issue of immigration in races across Texas and this race is no different.

Flores told supporters during the meet and greet that she would support the deportation of immigrants who commit crimes and emphasized the importance of securing the border to stop child trafficking.

Urging the audience to watch the controversial film, "The Sound of Freedom," which has been criticized for depicting an inaccurate portrayal of child trafficking, she accused the Biden administration of losing track of hundreds of thousands of migrant children.

The claim is based on a report from the Office of Inspector General for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security that stated they did not have documentation of the location of unaccompanied migrant children after they were transferred to the Office of Refugee Resettlement within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

However, the report states that the transfer of more than 448,000 unaccompanied children to Health and Human Services occurred from fiscal years 2019 to 2023, which includes approximately 15 months when Trump was president.

Gonzalez expressed support for the bipartisan Senate bill that Republicans eventually voted down as a solution to border security, calling it a “good bill” that would have added 1,100 new asylum officers,approximately 150 immigration judges to process asylum claims and more border patrol agents. The bill would have expedited asylum screenings, increased detention capacity and allowed the president to shut down the border if migration levels surpassed certain thresholds.

U.S. Rep. Vicente Gonzalez, who is running for reelection, greets supporters at the Northern Cameron County Democrats Meet the Candidates event in Harlingen on Oct. 8.

He was also one of five Democrats in the House to vote for a Republican-led border security bill that would have limited asylum and resumed building former President Trump’s border wall. The bill failed in the House and was considered to be a non-starter in the Senate.

If reelected, Gonzalez said he wants to focus on addressing the root causes of migration.

He said he supports creating safe zones in Central American countries where asylum seekers can apply for asylum without having to come to the U.S.'s southern border.

“That’s something that I intend to push regardless of who’s in office,” Gonzalez said. “Those are the only real solutions that will stop migration to our southern border.”

He also pointed to helping obtain compensation from the federal government for cities and counties along the border that have spent money and resources to provide humanitarian aid.

Boost in support

In her bid to retake the seat, Flores has received support of the National Republican Congressional Committee, the House Republican’s campaign arm, naming her as one of 26 candidates to receive support through their Young Guns program. The program provides mentorship and training to Republican challengers.

The race was also the focus of the NRCC’s first ad buy in Texas this cycle. In August, the committee announced $800,000 in ad reservations in Harlingen in support of Flores.

On the Democrat side, the House Majority PAC, announced ad reservations in South Texas in April which included $92,000 in Corpus Christi, $1,635,000 in Harlingen and $520,000 in San Antonio.

Gonzalez said Republicans correctly realize that in order to grow their base, they have to recruit more Hispanic voters but believes that will continue to be a struggle for the GOP because of an existing polarizing element within the party.

"Are there Republicans in the district? Of course there are like they always have been, but they're still quite the minority," Gonzalez said.

Reporting in the Rio Grande Valley is supported in part by the Methodist Healthcare Ministries of South Texas, Inc.

Clarification, Oct. 15, 2024 at 9:57 a.m.: This article has been updated to clarify the Mayra Flores campaign declined an interview with The Texas Tribune.