The National Media Likes Mayra...That's Bad News For Democrats...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas | There she was all over the news media, on TV and in the front pages of the country's largest newspapers. Republican Mayra Flores could not have paid for better publicity coming off her announcement this week that, yes, she'll challenge Democrats for the 34th Congressional District seat.

Say "Goodnight," incumbent Democrat Vicente Gonzalez.

Something heady comes across clearly when a candidate for what is essentially a minor district in Texas gets coverage by the national press. It says she's a credible candidate, for one. And it says that the media will afford her the sort of wall-to-wall coverage usually reserved for the Biggest Political Stars.

Mayra Flores has arrived in more ways than one.

Yes, she shocked South Texas last summer, when she won a special election to replace resigned Congressman Filemon Vela, a well-known Democrat. Then, in the November General Election, she battled Congressman Gonzalez for the newly-created 34th District and did surprisingly well, although losing 70,896 votes for Gonzalez and 59,474 for herself. Percentagewise, it was a 55% to 44% defeat - not shabby at all for a first timer in a part of the state usually owned by Democrats.

Almost 60,000 votes for a newcomer? That's a "Wow!" right there.

The initial shock of Flores winning the special election and going to Washington, D.C. was roundly reported, with many news outlets calling it "historic".

That's still the news peg, the neck of the story, as we called it in the newsroom. Once a bright lightbulb, always a bright lightbulb, goes the line for newcomers who bring a certain glitz and attraction. Mayra Flores has it.

She's still rough around the edges and her recognizable Mexican accent is still there. Plus, she likes to speak in platitudes, perhaps because most politicians do.

But Mayra is no doubt being handled by Republican operatives not from the Rio Grande Valley and likely not even from Texas. Folks at the Republican National Committee bugged her all year to seek the post one more time, promising a few million dollars to fund her campaign. So, yeah, why not again?

The mountain to climb will be just how much Democrats throw at Gonzalez's reelection campaign in 2024. Talk has it that Democrats stand a chance at retaking the House of Representatives majority. Every seat is going to count next November. This one may bring the sort of campaign spending never before seen in South Texas.

Would Mayra Flores be the best to represent District 34 residents?

She did vote against issues Republicans didn't during her short, six-months as congresswoman, drawing some complaints from her Republican colleagues.

Still, we do notice that her message seems a bit more strident this time around. She speaks of open borders, the trafficking of children (as if she has the evidence if anyone asked) and of the age-old, unaddressed poverty in the Rio Grande Valley.

There's not much any one congressman or congresswoman can do about any of that, and certainly not a congressman or congresswoman low on the Congressional leadership totem pole.

Mayra Flores is a good student of "partisan talking points," as is pretty much every danged elected official from coast to coast.

But is she more than that, more than just another opportunist?

South Texas will eventually find out if she is or isn't. Much will unfurl during the campaign between now and Election Day. The media will get its stories and pundits will analyze the info. Gonzalez, the favorite at the starting gate, may see much more stuff about Mayra Flores than about him. That's the media looking for a repeat of her initial splash. 

Congressman Gonzalez, it says here, needs to stay on his tippy toes and be ready to counter, counter what could include an avalanche of lies. He knows Mayra Flores is young. Gonzalez also knows she seems to have that always necessary volume of boundless energy.

The early line from here is that Congressman Gonzalez is already in trouble...

-30-