Congresswoman Mayra Flores Makes History

Last week, history was made when the first ever Mexican-born Congresswoman, Mayra Flores, was officially sworn into office.

FreedomWorks for America is incredibly proud to have had a hand in making this dream a reality.

Our relationship with Congresswoman Flores goes back to Fall of 2021. As an activist, Mayra attended our Hispanic Grassroots Alliance (HGA) event in McAllen, Texas, before anyone knew that Democrat Filamon Vela would be retiring and before the new Texas congressional map had been finished.

Rep. Flores had been for a while laying the groundwork to take back the House and Senate through her grassroots advocacy work as the Hidalgo County Republican Party chairwoman of Hispanic outreach. The energy in the room was palpable as future Rep. Flores delivered an impassioned speech to a cohort of fired-up Hispanic voters about how they can start making the government work for them.

So when Democrat Filamon Vela announced his retirement in March of this year, it only seemed right that Mayra, as an effective community leader and grassroots powerhouse in her own right, would file her candidacy for the special election, already having won the Republican primary for the November general election. And that’s exactly what she did.

Ever since we met Mayra, we knew that she was the real deal. We knew that we had to get involved in the June 14 special election and send a real grassroots candidate to Congress as soon as possible and that this was our opportunity to do it.

To do our part to get her elected, FreedomWorks for America endorsed Mayra Flores in both the general election, which uses Texas’s new congressional district map, and the special election, which used Texas’s old congressional district map, for Texas’ 34th congressional district.

Then, in May, FreedomWorks for America announced that we would be investing $150,000 in her race to help make the final push needed to win. That investment went towards:

–$60,000 of targeted digital ads;

–direct mail sent to 35,000 households;

–a steady stream of graphics and tweets from us on social media spreading the word about her candidacy;

–22,000 peer-to-peer texts in English and Spanish urging voters to cast their ballots for Mayra in the 24 hours leading up to the election;

–A “Road to Freedom” rally in Brownsville, TX, on Mayra’s behalf two weeks before the special election, where the HGA teamed up with Bienvenido.US.

With our help, Rep. Flores won outright with 51 percent of the vote in the special election, avoiding a runoff election. To put into context how remarkable this win is, we need only to remember that this district, located on the Texas-Mexico border, was won by Joe Biden in 2020 by 4 percent; it is one of the most heavily Hispanic-majority districts in the country. Mayra was also able to flip the district’s most populous county, Cameron County, winning it by one point even though it went for Biden by 13 points.

That she was able to pull off this victory in a 79 percent Hispanic district is a powerful sign that Democrats–contrary to what they’ve professed for decades–do NOT have a monopoly on Hispanic voters. Hispanic voters want safe communities, economic opportunity, and parental choice, just like any other ordinary American. Democrats’ policies have been a disaster, and Hispanic voters are making it clear that they won’t stand for this disaster any longer. There’s no doubt that Mayra’s victory has empowered Hispanic voters not only in Texas’ border communities, but in Hispanic communities across the country.

In November, she will face incumbent Democrat Vicente Gonzalez, who currently represents Texas’ 15th congressional district on the old Texas map.

Congresswoman Flores stops by FreedomWorks.

Despite being busy with her new job, Rep. Flores still somehow found the time last week to stop by our office for lunch, a tour, and to film a video about her journey to Congress. During lunch, Flores and her team told us that the peer-to-peer texts sent out in Spanish were especially constructive in getting out the vote for Mayra. Many residents in the old 34th districts are Spanish speakers only. It was an honor to have Rep. Flores and her team stop by; we cannot wait to keep working with her and see all the great things that she will accomplish in the halls of Congress!

Though FreedomWorks for America and our army of grassroots activists are still celebrating Rep. Flores’ win, we know that we cannot rest yet–this is only the beginning. In these critical months leading up to November, we will do all we can to help Rep. Flores win re-election and ride that red wave to D.C. once again.