SUN RECORDS:...The King Laughing It Up In Vegas Concert...This About The Time He Found Out Wife Priscilla Was Shagging Her Karate Instructor, A Dude Named Mike Stone..."Are You Lonesome Tonight"...

THE DIM & DIRTY ROAD:...A Rudderless Campaign To Nowhere...Hispanic Republican Mayra Flores Has No Second Or Third Gear...For Her, It's Still 2022...A Distinctive Smell Of Defeat In The Air...

 

By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

HARLINGEN, Texas |...Everybody knows exactly what is wrong with our republic. You can sit down at a bar and quickly hear the moaning and groaning. Same for most breakfast eateries. The words ring thick and vicious, sentences no longer interested in getting along.

I've been wondering about our politics for weeks now, always ready and willing to see a turn for the better but always turned away at the door. The price of admission is too high - your brain.

Here locally, it is the latest run for Congress being fashioned by a sort of tragic figure we all know as Republican candidate Mayra Flores, shown in photo above. What can you say about a 38-year-old woman so lost in the political landscape that to call her a dreamer is to believe that every dream is now a nightmare.

Miss Flores is going nowhere in her current campaign for the 34th Congressional District seat presently held by Democrat Vicente Gonzalez, a rather entrenched politician uninterested in losing to a woman born in Burgos, Mexico and educated at a city college in McAllen.

He's an attorney and she's a respiratory technician. His education is wide-ranging; Mayra's is lacking in government, economics, world history, finances and the sciences.

It is the easiest call we've had this year. Gonzalez will defeat her once more in the November General Election, in what are characterizing as another beating by more than 11,000 votes. That would be the same margin of victory Gonzalez celebrated two years ago.

The disappointment will be bitter, as most of us - and Miss Flores - remember she served a brief 6-month stint in Congress between the summer and end of 2022, after winning a Special Election following the retirement of then-Congressman Filemon Vela.

She likely remembers it as the shining highlight of her life. It was the equivalent of an actress coming off a job at a soda fountain counter to win an Academy Award. The thrill was nothing short of spectacular exhilaration, rivaling perhaps a much-awaited marriage proposal.

But then she lost that November day.

The interim has been a slog of sorts for Mayra Flores. She is a sought-after interview on Right-Wing media channels and has posed for photos alongside some Republican heavyweights, like Texas AG Ken Paxton.

Back home, the campaign has not been as exciting from one day to the next. She staged a daily visit to Rio Grande Valley eateries most of last month, visiting the restaurants in what she said was support of small businesses. The payoff of meeting crowds of potential voters was not there, however. Still, she has photos with the business owners for her Facebook page.

That ended and we next saw her inviting Right-Wing Congressman Cory Mills of Florida to join her for a rally at the economic Junction Cafe in Pharr, where the turnout was more than disappointing. She beat on against the current, as the novelist F. Scott Fitzgerald might say about here. Looking for the green light and hoping for a spark of sorts.

We have not seen it.

Instead, it is a wallowing we discern in her effort. Perhaps she has seen the writing on the voting booth wall, or maybe she, like us, knows most challenger candidates do not make up an 11,000-vote defeat. Indeed, we have not seen anything that would tell us she has been moving within the district's geography, which includes roughly half of the valley but also a chunk of the Texas Coast all the way to Corpus Christi and a little beyond.

Meanwhile, Congressman Gonzalez (shown in photo below) has been busy announcing federal money approved for his district pretty much weekly, from a little over a million dollars for dredging at the Port of Brownsville to almost $5 million for a new control tower at Valley International Airport here in Harlingen.

And Gonzalez has seen to it that he gets the press coverage.

Mayra Flores? It's as if this is her first rodeo.

There is no excitement chasing her campaign and the loud voice she used in 2022 seems to have mellowed. Still, she is a ground-floor fan of Donald J. Trump and that she will always let you know.

Perhaps she'll surprise us in the coming weeks. Maybe she has a rabbit in her hat she's yet to pull. Or, she has simply realized that there is no path to victory. South Texas is a unique political land. Running for office on the dirtied coattails of a flawed and selfish New Yorker likely is a problem away from the partisan rah-rah sessions.

Once, we admired her cheek and boldness.

There was a belief that we needed a loud voice in Congress, someone to get the attention of leaders and allow the Rio Grande Valley to grab its place on the national stage. Mayra Flores seemed to be auditioning for that part with every bit of harsh criticism she aimed at her opponent.

That annoying, fighting, grating Mayra Flores has not been around on this campaign.

This much is true: The daily desperate grind of an underdog political campaign eventually drains even the most-inspired candidates. Mayra Flores may be out of gas, the desire of a once-beckoning political career perhaps gone.

Pity...

-30-

SUN MEMORIES:...Those Halcyon Days In My Life...Reporting From Mexico For The Houston Post...."Love in Mexico"...What A Time It Was...

HIGH NOON:...Presidential Debate In Atlanta...For President Joe Biden, A Showdown With A Convicted Felon...For Republican Donald Trump, Yet Another Chance For Redemption...On The Latter, Don't Bet On It...Abortion & Immigration Front Center...

 

By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas |...Welcome to the World Series of Darkness, as the saying goes on matters such as this one. It'll be a presidential debate but stash the usual reverence. Biden vs. Trump is new territory. A night of "firsts" awaits interested Americans here a bit more than four months before the November General Election.

Never, ever, in the grand, 64-year history of these televised events has any political party ever postured a convicted felon like Republican Donald J. Trump, a candidate arriving two weeks before sentencing following his recent conviction in a New York courtroom of financial irregularities.

And that's just the 78-year-old's recently acquired baggage. He's still on the hook for three other trials, one in Washington, D.C. (the January 6th insurrection mess), one in Florida (the classified documents he took when leaving office) and one in Georgia (2020 election interference).

Democrat Joe Biden, meanwhile, again will see television viewers noting his every move and word. He's 81 and some say he's too old for the job.

Abortion and immigration will be key issues expected to be hashed about in Thursday night's presidential debate.

President Biden no doubt will pounce on Trump's backing of a national ban on abortion, while Trump will paint an oversized canvas of that so-called "massive invasion" of immigrants at the southern border. Both issues are on the minds of voters, with most women said to be anxious to dim Trump's bright bulb on that issue, as will be those Americans who want not one more immigrant admitted into the country.

It may not be being billed as an election for or against Fascism, but, for many, that is what the vote in November will be - Democracy itself on trial. Trump is seen as the dictator wannabe, a candidate who has said he would be a dictator but only for Day One if elected. That he even went there is enough for his supporters and his detractors. No candidate for this office has ever uttered those words.

Joe Biden will likely focus his debate language on his accomplishments in office, efforts that include low unemployment and high job numbers. His appeal to young voters will no doubt include his cancellation of college student loans and his steady progress on improving the nation's infrastructure. Biden may also play up his stoic defense of Ukraine in its war with Russia and his general support of Israel against the terrorist organization Hamas.

Somewhere in there, Biden will also address his executive order on the asylum issue as it relates to the border and immigration. His recent policy adjustment, damned by Republicans, has led to sizeable drops in apprehension of undocumented immigrants in recent weeks, according to officials with the U.S. Border Patrol.

For Trump, the debate task also includes an ability to speak to the issues, his candidacy and what it means for the country - beyond his usual histrionics, something independent voters have found to be tiring of late, to the point that, more and more, attendance at his rallies keeps dwindling.

Swimming under the current will be the question: "Is this America, or what?"

Trump's creation of his Make America Great Again (MAGA) has injected national politics with a loud and proud following seemingly not interested in anything but Trump and what Trump has to say. MAGA disdains and discounts pretty much any and all of criticism aimed at their candidate - charges, trials and jury verdicts included.

It is an odd time in America, but people in most other countries also will be tuning in. Many Europeans remember Trump's term as president (2016-2021) as a time of great anxiety. His open support of Russia's Vladimir Putin never sat well with leaders of other countries, as also did his interest in withdrawing the U.S. from the NATO alliance.

Trump's fondness for the Russian leader remains as strong as ever and his position on NATO has likely not changed. In fact, he has said the war in Ukraine would end the day he assumed the presidency. Biden has labeled that pure folly and further denigrated the friendship with the leader of a nation out to destroy America.

Just how deeply discussion of the issues will go on the Cable News Network (CNN) debate is anybody's guess. Moderating the event will be Jake Tapper and Dana Bash, two veteran journalists who have taken Trump to task in their reporting.

For President Biden, it will be another opportunity to shine, as he did in the State of The Union earlier this year.

Viewers will note that the debate forum will not include a live audience. Both Biden and Trump also will see their microphones turned off when not speaking, both novel to this occasion. That should rid the debate of what became constant interruptions by Trump during the 2020 debate.

Projections and pundit analysis have it that it will be viewed by perhaps the largest television audience ever.

We're way far down the road from the first JFK/Nixon televised debate on October 21, 1960.

Biden fits the traditional political mold of those two candidates; Trump, sadly, is still the wild card...

-30-

SUN RECORDS:...The Heart & Soul Of My Beloved Mexico...All Those Bus And Train And Airplane Rides Back In The Day...Here, The Great Marco Antonio Solís..."Cuando Te Acuerdes De Mi"...

SATURDAY SHORTS:...Trump's Veep, A Collection Of Troubled Kids...Salivating Dudes Willing And A Load Of Hungry Broads Auditioning...But, Uh, What Became Of Texas Gov. Greg Abbott's Chances?...

 

By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas |...Knowing Donald J. Trump as we do by now, it will not be a Black. He keeps ragging on President Joe Biden's Veep and she's Black, so there you go. Blacks Tim Scott, Ben Carson, Byron Donalds and Vivek Ramaswamy are out.

Place your big bet in Vegas on that one. It'll win.

No, Trump is not looking for a virile male, either. He fully believes he is that and much more.

So, count out Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Doug Burgum. (Oh, Aaron Rodgers, too)

A woman? Perhaps, but not wild Amazon Marjorie Taylor Greene. She's too spastic and not the model for formal education Trump so admires. He keeps saying he's smart because an uncle was a prof at prestigious M.I.T. The Arizona flash Kari Lake? Uh, no. She blew it by spending all her free time at Mar-a-Lago and we know how Trump feels about the same broad just hanging around.

New York congresswoman Elise Stefanik? She's too damned plain for Trump's glitzy tastes. The man-like Sarah Huckabee Sanders of plain-dumb Arkansas? A drawn-out maybe, but she, too, is too rural. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii? Don't think so. A Democrat not all that long ago, but a loudmouth, so...

South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem? The coulda-been here. But she shot and killed her little dog. FOX News has-been Tucker Carlson? I'd venture to say that Trump likely hates anyone who fades like this Bozo.

That leaves Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance from his talked-about list. Is he the one? There is not much Mike Pence is this late-comer, but he has sucked-up to Trump like a crazed sumbitch.

They're all cold-blooded MAGA types, yes. Any of the above-mentioned names could get the finger and they would all say, "Thank you."

But I do wonder why Texas Gov. Greg Abbott never made the list.

Geez, Louise, there for a while, Abbott was singing Trump's praises like Cher used to sing Sonny's. Que paso, Greg? It's a question we would ask both Abbott and Trump, although....we also know that Trump disdains any sort of physical disability in people he likes and keeps around hm.

Too bad for our governor, but, man, that "invasion at the border" song Abbott sang for long weeks earlier this year sure pleased Trump...

-30-

SUNBEAMS:...A Plain Valley Woman Moves West ...Looking For Love...Men At Large...A Day At The Grocery Store...Every Pear You Take...

 

By PATRICK ALCATRAZ / Fiction Editor

BROWNSVILLE, Texas |...Mona loved to see wild water in motion, whether in her glass-enclosed bathtub or at the lake or at the ocean. For her, every arriving wave was the essence of a potential boyfriend.

That last fat one here at the beach had to be the manager at work, a lecherous sort who'd just been dumped by his wife in a spectacular tale that was making its way into the local newspaper.

Picky, forty-year-old Mona was intrigued.

The indifferent Pacific never failed her. Day after day after wave after wave; she lapped it all up, at times with a tonguing of her lips, in the same manner that she ate convenience store popsicles and hard candy.

"I've got much to offer a man!" she would say aloud into the ocean headwinds. "Look at me, man! ...I'm the best game in town."

And, yes, she was. Mona Lisa De Leon, daughter of Brownsville, Texas, had left her scorching, humid bordertown for the beaches of California now going on 13 years ago.

One boyfriend in all that time, a fireman in Modesto. Mona Lisa thought highly of herself, of her chaste ways especially. Never an easy date even by California standards, she always let it be known that giving it up before the 10th date was a street harlot's move.

Then one day in April, she met Dan Pine at the corner grocery store, in the produce aisle, where she handled apples prior to tossing a few into her grocery cart. Dan strolled up and said go with pears.

Mona looked up to see the most rugged man she'd ever laid eyes on. No man back home looked like this. His heavy, bushy beard was like a pair on gray briefs all rolled up into a ball.

And so, she went ahead and bagged a half-dozen Bartlett pears, agreed to go out with Dan and then proceeded to live happily ever after with him.

When he died in a car crash 35 years later, Mona planted a young pear tree in her backyard and the tree is yielding the sweetest pears you'd want to taste...

-30-

SUN FLICKS:...From the 1996 Movie "Trees Lounge," Starring The Goofy Steve Buscemi...This tune by the band Hayden...Cool, Neighborhood Bar...

THE WEDNESDAY CLUB:...Writing This Week Is Supreme Court Associate Justice Samuel Alito...He's Pumped...And Thinking About Losing His Grouchy Wife...He's Got His Eye On Sexy Lauren Boebert, The Fondling Republican...

 

By SAMUEL ALITO/ Special To The Sun

PORT ISABEL, Texas |...Well, Martha-Ann just wanted to get away from it all. Washington, D.C. and our home in neighboring Virginia just weren't the places for love anymore. Too many people bitching up that way. They jumped all over my wife over the manner in which she flies flags outside our home. Runs'em up upside down.

What can I tell you that you don't already know?

But we're here and here we'll stay a few days. At the Port Isabel Yacht Club, although I've not seen a single yacht. Maybe they'll come for the July Fourth Regatta.

In any case, I suppose I should tell you that the wife is troubled. She keeps asking me if I still love her. The press has been especially hard on her. She looks like heck. Her moptop gray hair has turned whitish, and with that roundish face, well, she could easily be mistaken down here for a big, fat seagull.

We've been married a long time. From those days before I joined the Supreme Court and became a bigot, someone out to offer political dogma and not interpretation of our beloved Constitution. Forgive me Lord, for I have sinned.

And now I feel like sinning again.

My wife bores me. Hopefully, the news media won't grab that and run with it. I mean, we've been on the cover of Rolling Stone and even some lowly bloggers have given us heck. I'm Italian and I want to fight back, put my fist down a reporter's throat and boot up his or her ass. That's how we'd do it in Mafia-run Sicily, where my family tree was first planted and grew like a sumbitch.

It was that story out of Denver that drew me to her, I can now say. Who exactly is "her," you might ask. Well, as the Beach Boys like to say at the beginning of their songs, it's Colorado Congresswoman Lauren Boebert. She loops me, and I don't know what to do.

I was mesmerized by that episode of Lauren (Gosh, I want so much to say her name, all day long) at that showing of Beetlejuice where she was caught fondling her male date and being fondled. It was like a soft-porn scene from an Erich Segal novel (Love Story), with me playing Ryan O'Neil and sweet Lauren being Ali McGraw. You know, I had a dream in which, well, there we were. Lauren even called me "preppie." I woke up smiling.

So, who knows where this will go?

I'm due back at my seat on the High Court in a few days, but I'm not rushed. My colleague Clarence Thomas turned me onto this Texas zillionaire by the name of Crow and, well, we can get up there in no time at all aboard his private jet.

Tonight, here at the P.I. Yacht Club, I will fess it all up to Martha-Ann.

My wife is not good at taking horrible news, but what the heck, right?

I'm a Supreme Court bad ass these days...

-30-

[EDITOR'S NOTE:...This is the inaugural installment of a weekly feature in which we publish writing by noted politicians and other celebrities...always in a satirical vein, of course...]

REPUBLICAN WOMEN:...Bold, Hostile And Out There...Anywhere But The Kitchen...Power-Hungry And Saying It Out Loud...Yes, Add Our Own Mayra Flores And Monica De La Cruz To That Parade...

 

By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas |...It's an interesting study in our women, yes, but both of the ones in this topic are dead-set on joining their Republican Party brethren come hell or high water in the kitchen. They do not want to cook, or even shop for comestibles.

These women want political action, underhanded games and absolute power.

Forget Sarah Palin. She'd cower before today's GOP women.

All you have to do is take even a side-glance at ever-aggrieved Georgia Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene ("Bleach blonde, bad build, butch body") and see the clear growth in boldness. Greene demands attention. So does her troubled Colorado sweetheart, Lauren Boebert, a mother who disdained her son's appearance in court for burglary but attended Donald J. Trump's "Hush Money" trial in New York.

Nancy Mace, the South Carolina GOP congresswoman has been loud and more visible lately, even after her entire office staff resigned citing a "toxic" environment - whatever and all that may mean. Her counterpart in upstate New York, Elise Stefanik, has transformed from a genial and quiet representative to a Trump-approved hellcat now apparently on The Donald's short Veep list.

Then there is Lara Trump, the daughter-in-law now a co-leader of the Republican National Committee and her bellicose ways. She's the one who said any and all monies gathered by the RNC would go to Trump's presidential campaign and legal fund.

They grab the microphone, the interview occasion and they let it rip. Damn that crap about a women's place being in the home, kitchen and bedroom. There is something to be admired about that, only, in the case of these brazen political operatives, it at times can get annoying.

Enter 34th Congressional District candidate Mayra Flores, the darling of right-wing media for a brief shining moment back in 2022, when she actually won the seat in a Special Election and served it for six months, before being routed by Democrat Vicente Gonzalez in that year's November election - swamped, as in by more than 11,000 votes.

Flores bellowed, shrieked and filled her political days with excitement heretofore unseen in the Rio Grande Valley. She seems to have quieted down a bit in her current campaign, but it's still early in the journey. It has to be a tough gig if all you have at hand is words of /praise for Trump and not yourself.

The same goes for District 15 Congresswoman Monica De La Cruz, the picture-perfect image of a smiling 50-year-old divorcee who just looks out of place in national politics. Does Monica cook? We ask that in jest, but it's something to wonder about, especially after Flores was caught taking cook-out photos off the Internet and claiming them for herself.

Not to be so down on women in politics, but there is such a thing as class.

Yes, today's campaigns for office are nothing short of a barroom brawl, but one wonders: How much has Trump's lawless ways influenced his party's females? You answer that.

And who knows about the New Republican Women and the upcoming election. Storms never last, as they say in weather and song. We'll see. There is simply too much contradiction. You can pick an issue and ask about why Republican women don't scream against their own party.

The abortion issue, for one. Republican Party bigwigs want to outlaw them from coast to coast. But, really, when is the last time you heard any Republican woman defend that women's right. I mean, if we believe in freedoms, of course - your body being your body.

Not a peep. Let Donald speak his mind and we'll follow. Sheeple in cute sundresses (Monica De La Cruz, shown in photo above, at left), some in tight jeans and cowgirl boots (Mayra Flores). Yeah, never mind the pain. I suspect both of these politicians cry themselves to sleep.

The Republican Party is out to oppress women. How can Flores, shown with hefty load of BBQ in photo at right, and De La Cruz even dream of leading such a party? They cannot.

It is a sick joke to be sure.

Perhaps that's why we rarely see a Republican woman smiling congenially in photos or on TV, or even laughing sincerely.

The image-of-choice they have chosen is one of tireless bitterness and a flowing disgust that has to take a toll on the brain.

Male Republican candidates are extremists these days, and the women aboard that rolling Conestoga wagon sit alongside, rifle in hand, anger at the ready...

-30-

VOTING FOR PAIN:...Latinos For Trump Asking For It...Oh, But They So Want To Belong...Republicans Mayra Flores and Monica De La Cruz Ride Aboard Trump Train...That's Them Smiling As They Board...

 

By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas |...There is no rhyme or reason, from what I can see. Support for convicted felon Donald J, Trump is understandable from certain quarters, but from Latinos? Uh, no. They know not what they do, Lord.

The man hates them, won't sit with them, won't eat with them.

Yet, there they are, fawning over the racist candidate for president, asking to be among the first he would go after, damage and deport. Citizenship is not a given under fascism. They can only hope.

Surveys may indicate that Latinos are rallying behind the flawed Republican, but I also suspect that those numbers are skewed. A certain sector of insecure Hispanics is aboard his campaign, like local District 15 Congresswoman Monica De La Cruz and District 34 candidate Mayra Flores.

Would both give an arm and leg to help do Trump's ugly bidding?

But they are not alone in the ever-fad-happy Rio Grande Valley, a shank of land so far from Washington, D.C. and so much closer to Mexico City that it is neighboring country's culture that brings what we call life for locals.

Pass the salsa and keep the Grey Poupon.

Flores and De la Cruz, shown above, at right posing with Trump, have nothing in common with Trump and his crowd. What - claim to a party allegiance? Puh-leeeese. The Republican Party's use of non-White voters is a strategy for winning the most votes. Inclusion? Obscenity!

Trump never looks to Latinos for any sort of leadership standing. He had none - not one - in his Cabinet while in The White House. There was no such thing as the highest-ranking Hispanic in his administration. Even that other weird Republican, George W. Bush, had one - Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez.

Trump makes it very plain to see, yet Latinos do fawn over him. In Congress, U.S. Senators Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio support Trump wholeheartedly these days. They've come around. Once, Trump said Cruz's wife, Heidi, was ugly, and he labeled Rubio "Little Marco."

No, the myriads of clues are there, and it is more than just a foot-tall mound.

Flores, shown in photo at left, and De La Cruz, I say, exhibit nothing that tells me they are intelligent enough to see beyond the glitz of an inclusion that is simply a fake, one-way relationship. Meat on the hoof to be used and discarded after the election.

Latinos are a recognized force in our elections these days.

That political power is something that can benefit our people, our role in this ever-segmented country.

Smiling for Trump only makes Latinos look dumb, weak, futile and lost...

-30-

SUNBEAMS:...A Short Story Of Some Sort Of Crazy Love...But Not All Is Ever As It Seems In Wheelhouse Romance...You Can Go All-In On Romance...Happy Endings Were Back In Vogue...

 

By PATRICK ALCATRAZ/ Fiction Editor

BROWNSVILLE, Texas |...Funky Jake Ramirez had tolerated what he called Emilia's crap for long months. The relationship had been up and down and around the world, as they said in police reports across the grass-whorled country. Here, however, it had died, was just about over.

Emilia was a keeper by all measures of womanhood.

She had the brains, and she had the ass, is what Jake would tell friends.

"What she doesn't have is a Life under control," he'd go on. "The woman has 20 freakin' credit cards and they are all maxed-out!" That, and a few other personality peccadillos, like that she still wore bellbottoms and tie-dyed halter tops, as if a refugee from the bygone Summer of Love.

So when Jake decided to cut the cord with her, he told Emilia as much in a brief sermon that went to his dislike of her ways to the fact - as he put it, fact - that he hoped she would find what she was looking for.

Emilia coughed out a mini-surprise emotion and then said, "Cool."

In a jiffy sandwich, Jake felt out of her grasp. He kissed her on the cheek and said his goodbye; she moved her face toward his for the last peck and nodded in full agreement.

Sometimes, it's okay to go your own way, to get off the mare and live abroad, as they say in Texas.

Jake went on to date Emilia's socially aware sister Petula and Emilia started seeing an old Hippie who ran a motorcycle repair shop in town.

There was big trouble all across the map, but Happy Endings were back in vogue...

-30-

SUN RECORDS:...For All Playful Women Out For Good Fun...Ay, Mujer, Que Facil Eres...Maná & Alejandro Fernández... "Mariposa Traicionera"...

HOPELESS LAMENT:...Republican Freefall Now A Show Of Desperation...Local GOP Candidates In Full Disarray...Figurehead Reptilian Trump Still All About Trump...None Of It A Good Sign For November...

 

By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas |...Across the board, Republicans these days are more a gang of scooting field rats than any leaders the country could ever vote for or follow. It's now a crowded boat sinking in slow-motion. Desperation grips the party like never before. Local GOP candidates gasp for air. They know.

They know something's up and it's not good.

Recent national polling has angry figurehead leader Donald J. Trump slowly dropping in favorable ratings. His recent conviction in New York is now a clear mark of shame and disgust. The mess is rolling downhill and now affecting Republican down-ballot candidates.

They have no message, other than "Support Trump."

It's not enough to win The White House. At risk are a load of other congressional seats, both in the House and the Senate. We'll say it: Make no mistake, this is a political party in the latter stages of killer cancer. They know it and that's why they go nuts in speeches and media talk shows.

That meeting with Republicans in Washington, D.C. called by Trump yesterday was another sign of impending disaster. Like unsociable mice, Republicans did their best to look united, but the farce failed, as their leader let them know why he was there and what the game plan will be.

From axios.com: [ Lawmakers billed the meetings with the ex-president as part of an effort to boost GOP ranks in Congress and help Trump get a jump on his policy agenda should he win back the White House in November.

But Trump made clear in his remarks Thursday that securing his own re-election was at the forefront of his mind. ]

Again, he said. Trump cares only about his race and winning it. Every other Republican is on his or her own. Yeah, go tell Henny Penny to go tell Turkey Lurkey that Trump is in town. Falling, but in town.

Local Republican candidates Mayra Flores (34th Congressional District aspirant shown in photo at right) and first term, ever-shopping incumbent Congresswoman Monica De La Cruz (neighboring 15th District) have stopped mentioning Trump in speeches and on social media.

Suddenly for both, the contests in November are all about helping the valley's "abuelitos" with their needs and social security. They have decided to bring the election home, to do for and talk about issues affecting and befuddling South Texans.

It's too little, too late...

-30-

ABORTION:...Their Tone-Deaf Positions Will Doom Hispanic Republicans Mayra Flores And Monica De La Cruz...It Is Still The Hot Button Issue...Pro-Choice Keeps Winning At The Polls...Women Vs. Women?...

By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas |...They don't dare talk about it. We speak of area Republicans in the world of elections and abortion. They simply wish to see such talk go away. It won't. South Texas may still be seen as a Catholic stronghold, but it's never been that in the abortion front.

Mexico being so close always helped.

For years, Abortion clinics lined the Mexican side of the Rio Grande all the way from Matamoros to Ciudad Juarez. These days, Mexico is as liberal as liberal can get on the idea of women availing themselves to the medical procedure and, as we know, Mexico is as Catholic as The Vatican.

So, should we expect to see Hispanic Republican candidate Mayra Flores and GOP Congresswoman Monica De La Cruz (shown in photo above) addressing the topic that roils America from coast to coast these days?

Uh, don't hold your breath.

Not a peep has come from these two, not to date. Both are mothers, although 50-year-old De La Cruz is a single one.

Should they make their positions known? It's a losing proposition for Republicans these days, but the voters do deserve to know. Neither Flores, 38, nor De La Cruz has fielded questions on abortion. Republican-led Texas is whole hog against it, so perhaps we do know.

From NYMag.com: [ Since the U.S. Supreme Court reversed Roe v. Wade about two years ago, voters in seven states (Kansas, Kentucky, California, Michigan, Vermont, Montana, and Ohio) have been given an opportunity to weigh in on abortion policy. Pro-choice forces have won all seven. With Republican-controlled state legislatures imposing forced-birth regimes in large swaths of the country and Democrats envisioning a blue wave of voters seeking to restore abortion rights, efforts to secure November 2024 ballot measures have multiplied. And while it’s unclear at this juncture exactly how many states will hold votes on abortion policy, the odds of a continued pro-choice winning streak remain pretty good, according to the available polling. ]

Yeah, that All-Quiet-On-The-Abortion-Front you see is a strategy.

But we suspect that the Democrats in both races involving Flores (34th Congressional District) and De La Cruz (neighboring 15th) will soon bring it up. Flores badly trails incumbent Vicente Gonzalez, while De la Cruz has candidate Michelle Vallejo hot on her heels.

More and more, the Rio Grande Valley is not immune to issues roiling the rest of the country. Many here like to think they are up with the times, the current times being a smorgasbord of issues once only the purview of more-in-the-know hot shots in Austin or Washington, D.C. 

It was the Ol' Go Along to Get Along attitude.

Goodbye to that.

Today's Valleyites know the score. You can dance around issues all day long, but sundown brings the headier daily tally. Flores, shown in photo at left, and De La Cruz continue to play the old game, one that had our congressional candidates head over heels above the locals on most topics.

But those who know know that Monica De La Cruz is no Kika De La Garza. And, try as she might, Mayra Flores is no Vicente Gonzalez and, really, not even the second coming of any third-rate politician we've seen around here.

Abortion will sink many down-ballot Republicans in the November General Election. That Republican presidential candidate - Donald J. Trump - knows a woman's right-to-choose is one issue he won't touch. He'll blabber all day around it, saying the states should deal with it, but Democrats are going to hang a pair of speculums around his neck just to remind him.

Women know what speculums are and what they are used for...

-30-

HERE IT COMES:...November Is Looking Good For RGV Democrats...Dog Republican Congresswoman Monica De La Cruz In Heap Of Trouble...Candidate Mayra Flores Stuck In 2022...Yeah, LAND HO!!!!...

 

By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas |...About this time a year ago, Hispanic Republican candidate Mayra Flores was giddily yapping away about a coming Red Wave of her party faithful that would overwhelm voting booths from here to the Heavens.

God did not answer.

The dream-weaver Flores lost by more than 11,000 votes. There is no such colorful talk this time around as South Texas voters ready their minds ahead of the November General Election.

Also in the water is Congresswoman Monica De La Cruz, she of the homeless dog fetish. The District 15 representative is not making any waves, setting her campaign skiff's motor on automatic and apparently believing she has already beaten up & coming Democrat Michelle Vallejo.

What to think of all this?

Are Democrats now poised to sail on to victory at every level? They're not talking about any sort of Blue Wave, although their constituents are doing it online and during conversations in bars and restaurants.

It's what we're hearing, and our ears are on the ground. Daily, we take the measure of the discussion. There is NO WAY District 34 candidate Mayra Flores will make up her 11,000 vote defeat and NO WAY she will defeat incumbent Democrat Vicente Gonzalez.

Take it to the beach and to the bank.

The sentiment comes from what we're hearing about the national campaign in play for both of our major political parties. Republicans continue to cry themselves to sleep nightly over flawed, convicted felon candidate Donald J. Trump and the recent polls have shown it is in a freefall.

Down-ballot candidates such as De La Cruz, shown in photo above, at right, and Flores, shown below, will pay the price.

The 50-year-old De La Cruz, a former insurance agent and single mom, has decided hanging out at women's boutiques and splashing talk about saving area small businesses is the ticket to a nice swim all the way to the election.

The peripatetic Flores, meanwhile, has centered her campaign on a sort of similar bent, choosing to visit eateries across the Lower Valley as a way to spotlight her own support of small businesses. It is a weird strategy for both Hispanic Republicans.

Democrats Gonzalez and Vallejo are taking another route. Gonzalez has kept announcing federal dollars coming to the area, while 33-year-old Vallejo has spotlighted her local roots - a winner for hometown- proud RGV voters, we would say.

Yes, it's still a long five months before the election.

Waves are a natural at sea. Giant ones rise and crest when they want to, washing in to cleanse and cool.

This time, it is a big, Blue wave that's coming...

-30-

COURTING THE DOG VOTE:...Busy Bee District 15 Congresswoman Monica De La Cruz Is Into Dogs... The One-Term Republican Fills Her Daily Schedule With Protecting Them...And What About Her Human Constituents?...They Wonder What The Hell's Gotten Into Her...

 

By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas |...The word on the winding campaign trail has it that if local Congresswoman Monica De La Cruz is not shopping, she's spotlighting the cruel and cold world of homeless dogs. Yesterday, she introduced Bakun, a dog without a home and one she is working hard to help. Never mind constituents; they can help themselves, is her message.

The comfortable one-term Republican from Edinburg has been sort of hopscotching across the southern end of her district in an effort to aid small businesses. Of late, that has had the 50-year-old, single mom hitting mostly women's boutiques, visits she spotlights on social media as supporting small business.

But it is dogs that come a strong second, or, more correctly, dogs in shelters in need of a home.

De La Cruz posted this note on her Facebook page yesterday: [ "Meet our adorable Dog of the Week, Bakun! This furry friend will bring smiles and wagging tails to Team Monica HQ all week long. Stop by our office to meet Bakun. Let’s help find their furr-ever home." ]

Then came the criticism.

"Stop showing dogs we need numbers that are relevant how many of the valley students went to college and what percent graduated," wrote a commenter named Angel Torres. "Then what percent got good paying jobs."

Bark, bark, indeed.

A week ago, it was homeless canines Curly and Dragon that needed homes, according to a De La Cruz post on Facebook. That led to this comment from one Sean Christian, "That's gonna save America? Can't afford groceries how do you think someone's pet got there?" 

It's hard to say exactly where her campaign is these days. Her familiar opponent in the November General Election, younger Democrat Michelle Vallejo, however, is busy walking the neighborhoods of Western Hidalgo County (District 34 encompasses the eastern half) while also spearheading a phone bank drive to reach voters.

Oh, wait, De La Cruz did host a mid-day Open House at her local headquarters the other day. Photos of that gathering showed a small group of well-dressed supporters. No dogs could be seen in any of the pictures she posted online.

The 33-year-old Vallejo, owner of a popular flea market in Alton, is busy with her traditional campaign, perhaps because it's her second shot at dilly-dallying De La Cruz, who beat her in 2022 by 12,881 votes (53.3% to 44.8%).

There is a certain confidence in De La Cruz (shown shopping at right, in black dress) most anyone closely monitoring this race can easily see. Her smile is everywhere, although what woman does not look happy shopping for clothes in a ritzy boutique.

Perhaps she needs a dog's special kind of love.

They say dogs don't care about your problems, your disappointments or your position. A dog loves you regardless.

Maybe this is how Congresswoman De La Cruz balances the ups & downs, the bummers & frustrations of her job...

-30-

PRO BALL:...The Nice Rise Of The Women's National Basketball Association...Hell-o And Welcome, Caitlin Clark... Roundball Sensation...White Baller In League of 70% Black Stars...But No 2024 Olympic Team For Clark... This Time...

 

STAFF REPORT/ Americana

McALLEN, Texas |...The girl's a toughie, reminding us of one bygone John Havlicek, he of the tireless play for the champion Boston Celtics of the 1960s. We speak of 22-year-old Caitlin Clark, new star of the Indiana Fever.

Clark has brought fans to the young WNBA this season, even as her team struggles in the early going.

Like most rookies, Clark has had her ups and downs, scoring three points in her next to last game and then hitting for 30 in the latest.  

There has been some strife, however. A hard foul on her in a recent game led to critics and sports pundits saying Clark was being targeted and perhaps was too soft for the rough play of professional basketball.

From newsweek.com: [ However, even with all this stardom, Clark still wasn't able to make the Team USA roster for the 2024 Paris Olympics this summer. According to Christine Brennan of USA Today, Clark was left off the roster because the program was worried about the lack of playing time for her on such a loaded team. Her fan base can be a little wild and it could have been a distraction. Even with this move, Clark could still make the roster due to injury. ]

Sparkplug Caitlin Clark should be on the team...

-30-

SUN RECORDS:...My Song For Rebecca, Beautiful Daughter Of North Carolina...What A Time It Was, Kid...Tobu..."Return To The Wild"...

KEEP THE CHANGE:...Hispanic Republican Mayra Flores Wants To Win The 34th Congressional District Seat...Could She Win It Without Being A Full-Blown, Trump-Kissing MAGA?...It's A Laidback South Texas District...We Say, "Yes, She Could"...

 

By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

BROWNSVILLE, Texas |...As an experienced news journalist, you look at candidates for office and it doesn't take long to see what they have to offer and whether or not they'll go far. In many cases these days, the reporter's assessment is a tough one, as the bar has been so lowered as to no longer be seen above ground.

How do you properly gauge a loudmouth novice who is saying what is perceived as the right thing by his or her party leaders? Is volume now a must? Well, the ridiculous is selling in some quarters. In down-ballot races, it remains a task of appealing to your own people and not the Big Picture, national base.

With that in mind, we have been wondering how much it would affect 34th Congressional District candidate Mayra Flores, a relative newcomer to politics.

She's held hard to the troubled party's ". . .Elect Trump At Any Cost" platform, invoking her love of God, Country & Family as if to not do it would be to lose it in the first inning. That slogan does not differentiate her from 99% of the population, as Americans, indeed, have their faith, their loyalty to the land and, of course, love of wife, hubby, the kids and extended family.

We see no particular gain in that slogan.

So, she believes all that. Well, good for her; she's human and not some discount robotoid easily programmed to hand over her brain.

As we have said and written before, we see some positives in Miss Flores. She has mastered the art of outspokenness, which we wish for all Hispanic politicians. She seems driven to play the game, which is a plus for an immigrant who was born in hardscrabble Burgos, Mexico but grew up in the poverty-stricken Rio Grande Valley.

At times, she seems as genuine as a real diamond.

But it is her other side, one she has gladly adopted, that still bothers us. Mayra Flores has yet to be Mayra Flores, the original. To date, she continues to voluntarily play the harsh, often-racist MAGA card and its accompanying price; that of supporting convicted felon, racist, rapist, women fondler, adulterer Donald J. Trump.

That's a monster clash of values when compared to her upbringing.

Yet, there she is: All-Maga, All-The Time.

We could support her in this ongoing, clearly Quixotic campaign (she lost to Gonzalez by 11,000 votes in 2022) against deep-pockets, well-entrenched Democrat incumbent Vicente Gonzalez, who we see as a comfortable bureaucrat quick to quash critical commentary about his service for District 34 constituents.

But we are halted by her decision to stick to the national noise and not speak to issues and people who live down here along the Mexican Border, a constituency often characterized as forever struggling to put food on the table or a roof over their heads.

Mayra Flores is not talking about any of that. She keeps singing the same MAGA party refrain that actually goes nowhere down here. We say a photo op of her sitting in some area resident's living room would go far in overcoming her recent escapade of dining in eateries across the valley while saying she is doing it to support small businesses.

Screw small businesses!

Those here today, gone tomorrow capitalists all know what game they got into, and a congressperson's job is not to get them in the black.

Candidate Mayra Flores needs to humanize her cold-as-ice campaign by engaging, uh, PEOPLE!!!

And she can do it. But...

what's her message anyway? Hard to tell, even at this point. She offers herself in public settings and nothing on serious issues of the day. Nor does she express her position on policies she favors or disdains. Simply slamming the Democrat and waiting on the vote in November won't cut it, not after she lost by those 11,000 votes in 2022?

If only she got it out of her head that she needs MAGA. She really doesn't, not down here...

-30-

WHO KNEW:...American TV Loses Another Familiar Face...Snarky Pat Sajak Of "Wheel of Fortune" Calls It Quits...Yeah, But Who Knew Blondie Sidekick Vanna White Had Such Horrible Gums?...

 

STAFF REPORT/Americana

McALLEN, Texas |...It's her gums! Look at her. Big Smile and nice rack, but those teeth and gums are straight out of some bad-genes babe at a Georgia trailer park.

Oh, well, she's leaving.

Game show hostess Vanna White is out, as is host Pat Sajak. Out of the wildly-popular show "Wheel Of Fortune," we mean.

Those of your who chase the scintillating ocean waves of audience fun and laughter in these shows likely already know that Sajak's last show was yesterday. Adios, MOFO! You were never that funny, not with that hair.

The original version of the game show was a network daytime series hosted by laughing Chuck Woolery and Susan Stafford. When Woolery left in 1981, he was replaced by Sajak and after Stafford left in 1982, she was eventually replaced by Vanna White, with the co-hosts having hosted the nighttime version since its inception in 1983.

Now, after more than four decades of hosting, Sajak has retired, and his final episode aired on June 7. American Idol host Ryan Seacrest will take over for Season 42 in September.

Yes, we know. Who cares?

A woman with high gums is not our idea of attractiveness, as isn't large horse teeth or a flat ass.

But we shall persevere.

Television programming always brings something new, right?...

-30- 

PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT:......We Are Reevaluating Our Position On This Candidate's Bid For The 34th Congressional District Seat...She Is Challenging Incumbent Democrat Vicente Gonzalez...

 

SUN RECORDS:...One Of A Handful of Tunes From The Beatles I Actually Like..."Back In The U.S.S.R."...

SO, WHERE ARE WE?:...So Many Questions Abound As Things Seem To Be Dealt With...Prison Or Nothing Of The Sort For Trump?...Polls As Reliable Info...Are Americans Too Damaged To Care?...Do You Get All The News You Need From The Weather Report?...

 

By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas |...Years ago, when I was making my way through Journalism School at U.T.-Arlington, my professor would always stick to the lesson and never stray into intellectualizing what he was teaching. Stay with the news, the news you are reporting, he would say. Stay on it, with it.

That was rough at first, mainly because I had ventured into the field because of my interest in writing.

But daily journalism, for newspapers, is a study in what that same professor called the "small sky of vocabulary." There are plenty of words you never see in a newspaper story. Writing for magazines and book form is to use the entire sky.

Which is where intellectualizing comes in.

As a reporter, you can wax poetic on certain stories, but never on others. A Sunday Edition piece on the national politics of Mexico allows for some freedom of expression, i.e. the free use of adjectives; a story about a father who up and decides to drown his children is quite another thing altogether.

These days, there is so much opinion writing on our politics that news stories they accompany are taking second-billing. Donald J. Trump is convicted in criminal court and that story flails out. Right behind it comes a current of opinion pieces to buttress the event.

Trump was convicted on 34 counts of falsifying business records for tax purposes goes the straight news story. One asking if the verdict will it sink his candidacy for president follows right behind. Another asks if the recently completed case was honest and not political weaponization by Trump's enemies. Yet another ventures into whether he will go to prison.

The list is long, limited only by the angles members of the working press can come up with.

Lost in it all is the idea of what we used to call traditional reporting being the mainstay of a newspaper and of discussion at the dinner table. Today, the mounds of opinion-writing dominate conversations in bars and restaurant, some of it not fit for the dinner table at home.

Is that a bad thing?

No, not entirely. Free-flow partisan news is the new kid on the block. A minute or two with a right-wing website or publication confesses its purpose. Same for the left-wing efforts. Once, all you had was the no-nonsense evening news on network TV - ABC, CBS and NBC, all three regulated by the FCC.

The free-wheeling you face today comes from Cable-TV, which is not regulated by broadcast license government standards. FOX News is solely on cable-access and it is considered "entertainment." That also goes for CNN and Newsmax. Websites are regulated only their platform providers who avail it for a price. A jillion bloggers also play into this, many of them without any journalism education, and many more doing it on free platforms such as this one, Blogger.com.

It has led to "news" coming at people as if a hard, ceaseless rain.

The networks won't intellectualize news. They may offer an opinion segment, but even that will be straight and no-nonsense. You are more likely to get it on news-oriented show like 60 Minutes.  

And it may not even be intellectualizing; it could easily be straight-up, "entertaining" silliness, as offered by a host of news-like channels on Youtube.com, another growing weed field of amateurs.

Is this monsoon of news our current problem?

To a very large extent, yes.

Who knows how many of us track the day's news as if it all matters, doing it hour by hour, day after day? Americans have always been loyal consumers of their free press.

The problem today is that the once-trusted free press has been joined by a wild collection of foghorns out to persuade and not to inform.

And, well, who needs that, I know...

-30-

RGV MAYORS IN D.C.:...There To Support Biden's New Border Asylum Initiative...Missing Was McAllen Mayor Javier Villalobos...Maybe Not Invited...He's Been All About Pumping Up The Region...He's GOP...

 

By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas |...Perhaps he was not invited, but McAllen Mayor Javier Villalobos did not join other Rio Grande Valley mayors on their trip to The White House. They were there to support President Joe Biden's latest Border Asylum Initiative.

". . .Honored to have been invited to the White House to join President Biden for his press conference on the Executive Order." wrote Mayor Norma Sepulveda of Harlingen on her Facebook page. "Joined by fellow South Texas mayors, I was proud to represent Harlingen and be at the forefront of issues affecting our community."

Edinburg's mayor, Ramiro Garza Jr, was there, as was Brownsville Mayor John Cowen.

We should note that Villalobos identifies himself as a Republican, so that may explain his absence. But the guy has been all about pushing the region since assuming the job, even traveling often into Mexico in support of economic trade that affects all of the valley.

There was no comment on his always in-the-know Facebook page.

We generally support all Villalobos (shown in photo at right) has done and is doing. This, however, is not a good thing for the RGV. His absence is glaring. Everybody in the valley knows of Mayor Villalobos and his efforts to upgrade life and politics in the area.

This one, however, will sting.

Villalobos should have been part of the RGV contingent in D.C.

How will he explain it?

Simply by saying that he happens to be a Republican? Sorry, that's just too lame. Noting that he was not invited? I'm sure the other mayors - and the president - would have been fine with his attendance, if for no other reason than that McAllen is a huge and integral part of the valley.

This is not a good optic for Villalobos, no... 

-30-

SUN RECORDS:...From The Back Pages....Lindsey Buckingham And Stevie Nicks..."Never Going Back Again" (Live) 2005...

MAYRA'S FOLLY:...Her "All You Can Eat" Campaign At Clear Odds With District 34 Democrat Incumbent Vicente Gonzalez's Can-Do Approach...She's Weak On New Ideas...Eating Out Daily Shows Mayra's Out-Of-Touch With Valleyites.....

 

By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

BROWNSVILLE, Texas |...Again yesterday, Congressman Vicente Gonzalez arrived with federal dollars for this city, this as Mayra Flores, his flighty Republican opponent, was scarfing down another plate of grub in her rolling "All You Can Eat" campaign ahead of the November General Election.

This was Democrat Gonzalez's announcement: "I’m proud to announce that the Flor De Mayo International Bridge has received a Presidential Permit, paving the way for enhanced U.S.-Mexico connectivity. This bridge will be located in Brownsville, Texas. Thank you, President Joe Biden, for authorizing this crucial infrastructure that will boost commerce and strengthen our community."

Stark contrast is likely a phrase foreign to Mayra Flores, but that is now evident in the 34th Congressional District seat fight.

Where Gonzalez deals in action for his constituents, Flores is gauging tacos across the Rio Grande Valley. It is both odd and bizarre. She has flashed her food tour featuring eateries from Brownsville, to Harlingen, to Weslaco, to Pharr and McAllen.

We ask: Does she have a cookbook idea for her post-election life?

Gonzalez has delivered on federal cash for the Port of Brownsville, for work on Harlingen's airport, for affordable housing in the valley and now for the needed bridge.

Where was Mayra Flores?

Killing plates of BBQ, nopalitos and eggs, chicken fried steak, crispy tacos, pizza, Mexican combo plates and even a few snacks in between. Her campaign manager must be a former McDonald's shift manager. Hers is no serious campaign, is what we would say.

And that is not good news for a candidate on her second run at the office, one she lost by more than 11,000 votes in the last go round, in 2022.

Nothing on issues or policy from Mayra.

It is as if she believes all she has to do is put her nose behind the MAGA mob and she'll win. Poor girl. She has no clue. It's now less than five months before the election in November and she has offered nothing new. Nada. Zip. Zero. This Mayra is the 2022 Mayra.

And, well, no one is happier for that than incumbent Congressman Gonzalez...

-30-

SUN RECORDS:...From The Official Band Of Texas...Texas Tornados..."Clinging To You"...

IN MEXICO, IT'S SHEINBAUM:...Claudia To Be Country's First Woman Prez...She Won Handily... Promises To Augment AMLO's Legacy...No Felony Conviction Trailing Her...

 

By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas |...The result was no great surprise. Mexico had two options in selecting a candidate for its next president: Claudia Sheinbaum of the ruling Morena Party or Xóchitl Galvez, the one postured by a grouping of several parties.

Sheinbaum will be Mexico's next president after Sunday's election.

This from The Associated Press: [ "I will become the first woman president of Mexico," Sheinbaum said with a smile, speaking at a downtown hotel shortly after electoral authorities announced a statistical sample showed she held an irreversible lead. "I don’t make it alone. We’ve all made it, with our heroines who gave us our homeland, with our mothers, our daughters and our granddaughters."

"We have demonstrated that Mexico is a democratic country with peaceful elections," she said.

The National Electoral Institute’s president said Sheinbaum had between 58.3% and 60.7% of the vote, according to a statistical sample. Opposition candidate Xóchitl Gálvez had between 26.6% and 28.6% of the vote and Jorge Álvarez Máynez had between 9.9% and 10.8% of the vote. Sheinbaum’s Morena Party was also projected to hold majorities in both chambers of Congress. ]

The Sunday vote was something of an affirmation for outgoing president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO). Critics still abound to many of his policies, including his decision not to go after the Mexican drug cartels.

That hands-off is likely to remain in place, as Sheinbaum has said little about Mexico's continuing headache.

The 61-year-old Sheinbaum will begin her presidency on October 1...

-30-