DO THAT TO ME ONE MORE TIME:...Candidate Mayra Flores Rides "All You Can Eat" Campaign In Congressional District 34 Race...Alas, Nothing New In Her Effort To Unseat Democrat Vicente Gonzalez...

 

By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas |...Perhaps we expect too much from our current politicians. And maybe they know it now. Representing others can be a drag when you're chasing something else, goes the line in Rio Grande Valley bars and cafes these days.

Take Republican candidate Mayra Flores, shown in photo above.

The 38-year-old keeps claiming the common journey of many New Americans who arrive here and instantly declare they have found the American Dream, whatever that may be these days. Born in Burgos, Mexico in the northern Mexico state of Tamaulipas, Miss Flores has done enough with her personal life to lay such a claim.

She is an American, educated in San Benito public schools and, later, at South Texas Community College in wealthier McAllen, where she studied the Respiratory Technician skills also mentioned in her resume, along with being a married mom of three and having a Border Patrol agent for a husband.

Today, she is seeking a life in politics, challenging incumbent Democrat Vicente Gonzlez for the 34th Congressional District seat he has held for two terms. Miss Flores lost to Gonzalez by more than 11,000 votes in the most recent election, 2022.

We cannot tell you where or when the seed of politics entered her mind and life, but that experience most voters seek in candidates is and always is rather thin in Mayra Flores. Her background was one of work in healthcare, hardly the place for a loud, tough-talking MAGA Republican. But maybe she is a quick study; that is, she could decide to seek office, look at the landscape and glean a persona from those already in the field while crafting her new face and sound.

Her campaign style seems okay, one of mixing with the area's voting populace. All politicians do that, don't they?

We have been tickled by her recent approach of hitting Rio Grande Valley eateries to display what she says is support for small businesses. Sounds cool. But what the photos she kept posting on her Facebook page about her food tour did was reinforce a belief here that she is too intellectually shallow for the job she wants.

Can you picture Congressman Gonzalez doing the same?

No, he's damned busy doing the job, bringing home the bacon - seemingly announcing more federal monies for South Texas every week. Meanwhile, opponent Mayra Flores chomps away at quite-decent grub. The problem for her is that food does not vote, and what lingers in one's mind is that perhaps she should be doing some door-knocking.

An "All You Can Eat" campaign is a loser from the get-go. Mayra Flores appears entitled, eating out every day in a part of the state and country where most struggle to find good jobs, pay bills, get a roof over their heads and put food on the table.

Who knows, but we do hope that she has other approaches to her campaign.

We would advise her to speak to issues/policy instead of how much she enjoyed that played at Rooster's Country Restaurant in Harlingen or those BBQ ribs in Brownsville. Is she seeking endorsements? No word about that, or about voicing how this effort is different than her losing 2022 campaign.

Interestingly, her Facebook page is chock-full of support from her followers. But we do notice that a good amount of them are not from the Rio Grande Valley, or even from Texas. Most of those outsiders are clearly MAGA-types who giddily applaud her latest anti-Democrat rant.

District 34 includes the eastern portion of Hidalgo County, but we not seen Mayra Flores campaigning or eating in McAllen, where voters do turn out.

Maybe we're early with this report. She could roll into a City of Palms eatery today.

As for our early read on her chances in the November General Election, well, we would say that she has not done anything she didn't do in 2022. Nothing new, not even a faint holler or two about that Red Wave being on its way one more time.

Democrat Vicente Gonzalez, an attorney by profession, is doing the job he was elected to do.

A few days ago, we wrote that there is no reason to change horses in this race.

This morning, we still believe it...

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