For the next seven months, a slice of South Texas will be represented in Washington by Mayra Flores, a Mexican-born Republican woman from the Rio Grande Valley — a longtime Democratic region where Flores’ special election win on Tuesday marked several firsts.
Flores immigrated from Tamaulipas, Mexico when she was six years old and grew up in the Rio Grande Valley region. In addition to working as a respiratory care practitioner, Flores served as the Hidalgo County GOP Hispanic Outreach chair to increase and maintain Republican support among Latinos in the area — which has been ramping up in recent years.
Before Flores won her district Tuesday, President Joe Biden carried it by 4 points over Donald Trump in 2020 — a huge shift from the previous presidential elections under these district lines, when Trump in 2016 and Mitt Romney in 2012 were blown out by 20-plus points each.