He's Set Sept. 4th As Decision Day...That May Be Too Late...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

BROWNSVILLE, Texas | Three younger, hungrier Republicans have set their markers down, here a year and a half before the 2024 election. Carlos Cascos, shown in file photo above, is apparently in no hurry. Bolting noisily ahead of the 34th Congressional District pack already is former U.S. Congresswoman Mayra Flores. Harlingen oncologist Laura Cisneros is in, as is perhaps the longshot in the race, Mauro Garza.

Cascos has set September 4th (Labor Day) as the day he will announce his decision to jump into the contest or...let it go.

He's 70 years old (or very near it), and one would think he'd want to be on the campaign trail showing the same energy as are his potential opponents. Flores is out there daily, like a crazed banshee loudly forewarning of incumbent Democrat Vicente Gonzalez's demise. She's pumped and wishing Election Day could hurry up and get here.

Garza, shown in photo below, at right, is another "new" Republican whose campaign is, well, FO - Facebook Only. If he has any campaign signage in the district, well, it's spotty.

Same for Dr. Cisneros (shown at left), a Democrat as recently as the last election. She bolted for the warmer arms of the Republican Party, as did, we should add, Carlos Cascos a few decades back. And like Cascos, Cisneros felt the Democratic Party hierarchy was not quite interested in her political aspirations. She's another longshot.

Seriously, we believe the race between Mayra Flores and Cascos in a Republican primary brawl would energize their voter base. Flores is coming off a stinging defeat to Congressman Gonzalez last November, when he beat her by 10,000 votes.

The experienced Cascos, a former Cameron County Judge and Texas Secretary of State, likely has his pocketful of reasons for delaying an announcement. The primaries are next Spring, the meaningful election in November, 2024.

His credentials tower over Mayra Flores, a 37-year-old San Benito High School grad who later earned an associate's (two-year) degree in respiratory therapy from South Texas College. The interesting tidbit about her is that she, too, was a Democrat at one time who voted for Barack Obama in the 2008 presidential election.

Like many younger, newcomer candidates drawn like flies to the GOP, Miss Flores has become something of a lightning rod on current hot-button issues, such as abortion (she's against it), undocumented border crossings (she's against it, but was born in neighboring Tamaulipas, Mexico, coming to the U.S. at age six and becoming a citizen at age 14), election fraud (she believes Republican Donald J. Trump actually beat Democrat President Joe Biden in 2020).

Cascos is a graduate of the University of Texas (accountant) and a candidate with much more public service experience than any of the aforementioned prospects.

It says here that he should make his decision sooner, that to let it linger as he is doing is to have voters see him as some comfortable, air-conditioned guy who doesn't really want the job...

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