WAVES:...Red Or Blue?...Both Coming In November...Is It A Toss-up, Or Is The Rio Grande Valley An Eternal Democratic Stronghold?...

 

By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas |...A cold, cold norther is working its way down this far in Texas. Temperatures in the upper 20s by next Monday night, say the weatherboys. A wild wind will blow. It'll be a brief wave, but one that will likely be felt by residents spoiled by the region's subtropical weather.

Later this year, likely by the hot summer months of July and August, another set of waves will weasel in, bringing not hot or cold temps to ruin the family budget but one to sway the palm fronds and shake the political branches.

Red Wave.

Blue Wave.

They're coming. Red Republicans who agonized last election when their much-ballyhooed RED WAVE! petered out north of Raymondville can only dream of a seeing a mighty, high-mountain wind rake across the Rio Grande Valley. Democrats in Blue again steel themselves against the emerging blowback.

The Valley remains a Democratic stronghold. That is not up for discussion. What local Republicans hope for is an energized campaign that, at the very least, sees one of their own win a contest.

Republican Monica De La Cruz, congresswoman representing the 15th Congressional District that includes McAllen and Hidalgo County, is favored to be reelected. The 58-year-old De la Cruz (shown in photo at right) hasn't done anything notable in his first two-year term, but she also has not embarrassed herself in the way of, say, fellow Republicans Lauren "Grope me, Baby!" Boebert of Colorado or Marjorie Taylor Greene, the Trailer Park Punk from Georgia.

De La Cruz is favored.

In sleepy neighboring Cameron County to the east, it is the Democrat Vicente Gonzalez in the 34th Congressional District who is poised to keep his seat, even as rebel-bent Republican opponent Mayra Flores keeps pushing her pro-Donald Trump slime. There are three other, lesser-known Republicans riding the Flores station wagon, only all are backseat losers - Laura E. Cisneros, Mauro Garza and some novice named Kunkle.

Both races will be watched closely by the respective parties.

Neither seat is a maker-breaker for the Democrats, but Republicans hold a slim edge in House of Representative seats. For them, even these two races down here could be crucial, existential even.

Times are changing for the Rio Grande Valley. Where once campaigns went whole hog for Democrats, the arrival of younger candidates not interested in paying their dues for Democratic bigwigs and setting sail as pseudo-Republicans is changing the voting booth dynamic.

Gone are the safe and predictable days of such powerful Democrats in Congress as those enjoyed by U.S. Senator Lloyd Bentsen and U.S. Rep. Eligio "Kika" De La Garza. The years that came after those two left politics (and died, yes) have been a slow slide into what is or will soon be a two-party Rio Grande Valley.

The scoffing has faded.

Republicans are a rising power here these days. Maybe not as powerful as the Democrats but a power in that they, too, can up & surprise on Election Night. Waves will move. It's just how tall they will crest that has Old School Democrats such as Texas Democratic Party Chairman Gilberto Hinojosa wearing the look of sleepless nights on his face.

Politics ages a politician like little else. There is no skin-rejuvenating cream on Amazon. Even 38-year-old Mayra Flores is looking like she just rolled off a turbulent hayride.

There isn't much noise yet, and the Trump Trains that will roll down RGV streets and highways are still stashed in driveways and garages. They will roar as we get closer to the election that will come just before Thanksgiving.

The Valley, it says here, will weather two monster political waves this time around. Both are being set in motion. It is a novelty for many who have not been part of the area's political games, who have been energized by the new drama arriving as if for a carnival or parade.

It is they who will be riding the crest of the winning wave...

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