By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ
McALLEN, Texas | We're tempted to call it a brain-drain, only some of the candidates involved exhibit little in the way of New Thought. We point the Home Depot flashlight at former Democrats such as political novice Mauro Garza seeking the 34th Congressional District seat or Ricardo "Richard" Alejandro, who desperately wants to be a Cameron County commissioner.
Both turned to the Republican Party for permission to run...and got it, no questions asked.
So did Mayra Flores, a serious favorite to contest for that same 34th Congressional District seat now held by Democrat Vicente Gonzalez. Same for former Cameron County Judge (and ex-Texas Secretary of State) Carlos Cascos.
Oh, and let's not forget gutsy Monica De la Cruz of McAllen, the New Republican who won the 15th Congressional District seat last election. She is shown celebrating her victory in photo below.
Former Democrats are flocking to the Grand Old Party as if drawn by some "come on" magnetic ray presumably telling them to forego their old Democratic Party allegiances and fly First Class across a new sky, of sorts.
What's this all about?
McAllen Mayor Javier Villalobos is a former Democrat.
Los Fresnos Mayor Alejandro Flores is a former Democrat.
Both are openly saying they are Republicans and what of it? The allegiance is palpable. Are they really Republicans, is the question that emerges quickly, perhaps because we know the Rio Grande Valley was a Democratic Party stronghold for decades.
Republicans here were Election Day zeroes, if you could actually find one. Their clout was negligible, and they generally lost every important election. But, as Chad & Jeremy once sang, that was yesterday...and yesterday's gone.
So, who to blame? Voters? Yes, to some extent. Their actions at the ballot will always tell the story.
But some blame has to go to the Texas Democratic Party and its chairman, one Gilberto Hinojosa (shown in photo atop this post). The 71-year-old political wiz has been losing too much lately. That losing streak delivered Mayra Flores last summer, when she won a Special Election and went off to serve in Congress. Her term was brief, but she served...as a Republican.
Hinojosa, it is said, was shocked by her victory over Democrat Dan Sanchez. Stronger Democrat Gonzalez whipped her in the November, 2022 election, but her flight to the GOP had been a success, and continues to be that.
Hispanics are Democrats.
That's what you hear from Old Timers here. None of the recent New Republicans are Old Timers, with the exception of Carlos Cascos, who is or will soon turn 70 years of age. His soft-shoe cumbia dance to the GOP, however, came more than a decade ago. He has said the Democratic Party turned its back on him.
Not these youngsters. They came out of the woodwork and declared candidacies as Republicans and the Republican Party did not dissuade them.
Hispanics in the Rio Grande Valley no longer are property-from-birth of the Democratic Party.
They are wild with political aspirations, and they now know they do not have to kowtow to old geezer Democratic Party leaders...like Gilberto Hinojosa.
Hinojosa seems unable to stem the stunning exodus...
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