By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ
BROWNSVILLE, Texas | It gave Mayra Flores the only Republican Primary win she needed. She will be the GOP's nominee in that race against Democrat Vicente Gonzalez in November, 2024. Miss Flores will thank her God, as is her way, but she should also thank fellow Republican Carlos Cascos, who bowed out of the race late last week.
We still say all it would have taken for Cascos to beat her would have been one debate.
A battle between Cascos and Gonzalez would have been the one for the 34th Congressional District's constituency. There is, we dare say, a miles-wide difference between Cascos, a former Cameron County Judge and ex-Texas Secretary of State, and any of the declared Republican candidates for that post.
But he decided against it.
As much as we grudgingly accepted his decision (for selfish Journalism reasons), we must say that Mr. Cascos absolutely knows he could have defeated Miss Flores. It is the Republican Party's national candidate apparatus that felled him, as he readily acknowledges that Miss Flores would be the one getting the millions in campaign funds needed to challenge for the post.
Mayra Flores became the darling of the Republican National Committee after beating Democrat Dan Sanchez for the job once held by Congressman Fil Vela in that Special Election in the Summer of 2022.
I mean, The New York Times and other major publications noted the historical significance of her victory in what was correctly characterized as "Democrat Country". Her term was short-lived: six months in which she fell into the job and fully believed she'd have a while. It was over when the November General Election came around and Democrat Vicente Gonzalez took her seat her by more than 10,000 votes.
It's, of course, a Big Sky from which candidates reach for and grab reasons for seeking a political post. Often, it is all about money. In his case, Carlos Cascos had the name recognition and the political cache to seriously go after not just Mayra Flores but also the incumbent. We'll never know how it all would have unfolded, but, from a journalist's perspective, it would have been a wildly-contested push & shove, edge & nudge, lead & follow horse race around the oval track.
In the world of news, we always like to say that some stories have legs; that is, they stick around for longer than one or two or three news cycles. This is one of those stories. We've never been big fans of Mayra Flores and her hothead style of politicking. Her manner of public discourse is rough and elementary, cliches and platitudes being her strength. Mr. Cascos would have unmasked her in any debate, early-on even. She's zirconia-in-the-rough, a fakery-favoring public servant in tight jeans and knee-high leather boots.
The contrast between them would have been readily discernible.
We'll await the calling of the horses to the gate as the year ends. Somehow, a contest pitting candidates Flores, unknown Mauro Garza of Raymondville and even more-unknown Laura E. Cisneros of Brownsville doesn't register on the political Richter Scale. No, Virginia, the needle isn't moving.
What's left for us is to find out whether Mr. Cascos will endorse and support his party's nominee against entrenched Gonzalez.
Something tells us his answer would not surprise many...
-30-
6 comments:
Bottom photo. That's as close as Mayra got to picking cotton. But she swears she picked it in the field. LOL
He seems to be the most level-headed politician out there in the RGV. Surely he'll run for something again. And endorsing Mayra would erase all of that for him. Good luck, sir.
Mayor of Brownsville?
A better post (non-existent at present) for Cascos would be "Ambassador of the RGV," a position endorsed by mayors of every city and town in the Rio Grande Valley, with Cascos representing the area in Austin, in Washington, D.C. and in neighboring Mexico. He has name ID in Auston and in Mexico. In D.C., he would push our reps to do for the Valley. But it would take a bit of outside-the-box thinking for something like that to happen in the RGV. Still, short of serving in Congress, that's something for Cascos to consider and perhaps something Brownsville's Republican Mayor John Cowen could spearhead...
Would be nice, but Valley cities are not all that hooked-up with each other on anything. Just saying.
Mayra Flores would bore the hell out of me on a date. Lots of teeth. Mini-brain. What does she talk about?
Post a Comment