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EXCLUSIVE: Republican candidate Eric Flores believes that, despite national headwinds, Democrats are heading for a major defeat in a critical South Texas swing district after he said the party has “missed the queue” with a key demographic: Hispanic voters.
Democratic leaders have been projecting confidence that they will retake the House of Representatives this midterm election. However, Texas Congressional District 34, which is primarily made up of Hispanic voters, is one race that could complicate those plans.
Currently held by Democratic Rep. Vicente Gonzalez, District 34 has been trending hard toward Republicans in the last several elections. And with Republicans’ razor-thin House majority at stake, Flores’ race is considered a top pick-up opportunity for the GOP.
Flores, a 34-year-old veteran and former U.S. attorney, spoke with Fox News Digital after a meeting with shrimping business leaders at the Port of Brownsville. He asserted that South Texas Hispanic voters “can see through the smoke and mirrors.” With Democrats like Senate candidate James Talarico at the top of the ticket in Texas, Flores believes voters are seeing the distinction between the two parties even more clearly.
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Rep. Vicente Gonzalez (left), D-Texas, is facing a difficult reelection race against Republican challenger Eric Flores (right). (Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images; Eric Flores campaign)
“Here in South Texas, we’re conservative. We go to church … we want to keep the family unit whole, whereas James Talarico is talking about six genders, right? He’s talking about the first thing that he loves outside of his family and friends are transgender children. That’s not what we’re about here in South Texas,” said Flores.
“We’re about taking care of our family values of keeping Christ first. They’ve absolutely missed that.”
Further, Flores said that South Texans are not connecting with Democrats’ messaging in opposition to President Donald Trump and the administration’s immigration policy.
“The issues that I’m hearing right now from the South Texas constituent is not the mainstream media point or the invisible villain that folks like Vicente Gonzalez, AOC and James Talarico are casting right now,” he said. “I’ll tell you what the constituent and what the voter is focusing on right now. They’re focusing on the cost of living. They’re focusing on affordability.”
“We’re talking about the one big, beautiful bill, the working family tax cut. That is what they’re talking about. They want the prices to continue to go down, and they want the future generation to be able to afford a house,” he added.
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Republican congressional candidate Eric Flores (center) inspects shrimping boats at the Port of Brownsville. (Peter Pinedo/Fox News Digital)
Meanwhile, he accused Gonzalez of not having passed “a single substantive piece of legislation for South Texas” during his nearly 10 years in Congress.
“I don’t know any job that you can have for 10 years and not be able to point to one substantive thing that you’ve done other than, well, I got this earmarked money, or I got these boys and girls grant. We appreciate that, but South Texas is deserving of much more than just that,” said Flores.
“He is using excuses that President Trump is wanting to deport brown people, and that’s not the truth,” he went on.
In response, Gonzalez called it “beyond hypocritical for Eric Flores and Republicans in Washington to feign concern for the economy when they openly celebrate stripping affordable health care and food assistance away from millions of families through their One Big, Ugly Bill.”
Gonzalez told Fox News Digital that “when Democrats retake the majority in November, I will focus on ending these ‘America Last’ policies that cater to the wealthiest few at the expense of hardworking South Texas families.”
“While Eric panders to the Administration like a lapdog, I’ve delivered more than $8 billion in federal funding to support law enforcement, improve infrastructure, assist veterans, and strengthen public education in my district,” he continued, adding, “South Texans deserve a fighter who puts our community first, not someone like Eric, who served as the lead defense counsel for a child predator and will only work for party bosses.”
Additionally, JT Ennis, a spokesperson for Talarico, commented to Fox News Digital that “there is a growing backlash in South Texas to the corruption we’re seeing from politicians like [GOP Senate candidate] Ken Paxton.”
“They promised to make everything less expensive and put working families first, but now everything is more expensive and working families are further behind – all because they’d rather cut taxes for billionaire mega-donors than help working Texans,” said Ennis. “While Ken Paxton hurls cheap insults to distract from his career of corruption, James will continue bringing working people together to fix this broken political system and lower costs for families.”
Fox News Digital reached out to Paxton, who currently serves as Texas attorney general, for comment.
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Eric Flores, Republican candidate for Texas Congressional District 34, speaks with a shrimping business owner at the Port of Brownsville. (Peter Pinedo/Fox News Digital)
Meanwhile, in a statement to Fox News Digital, Zach Kraft, a spokesperson for the Republican National Committee, criticized Gonzalez and Talarico for having “fought as transgender warriors for a decade, trying to convince Texans there are six genders and men can become women using your tax dollars for sex change surgeries.”
Fox News Digital reached out to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee for comment.
Though South Texas has been dominated by Democrats for roughly a century, Flores concluded that “folks down here feel absolutely abandoned by the Democrat[s].”
“We can say 50 to 100 years, people are tired of not having results. They’re tired of the Democrats coming down here and saying that they’re the representative party for this area. And it’s just false,” he said.
“This is the number one targeted seat in the entire nation. And why is that? Because we continue to see the Hispanic voter moving closer and closer to the Republican Party. What drives that? A lot of people don’t understand this. Here in South Texas, we’re really about three things: It’s faith, family, and hard work.”
Fox News Digital also reached out to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., for comment.
