EXCLUSIVE — Former Republican Rep. Mayra Flores, who declared her intention to challenge Rep.Henry Cuellar(D-TX) earlier this year, is going back to her original district and launching her third attempt to challenge Rep. Vicente Gonzalez (D-TX).
Flores reported in April that she is runningto challenge Cuellar in the 28th District following two previous losses in recent cycles against Gonzalez in the 34th District, where she once held a seat in Congress. However, Flores has altered her strategy after Texasredrew its congressional maps, securing five additional Republican congressional seats and increasing Republican advantages in current districts.
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Currently, internal polling indicates that Flores would outperform the declared Republican candidates seeking to defeat Gonzalez in the 34th District, leading her to withdraw her challenge against Cuellar.
“After the redistricting, [the 34th] District has become significantly more Republican-leaning, and we think the best choice is to keep doing the work we began in 2021,” Flores said in an interview with the Washington Examiner.
Flores, the first woman from Mexico to be elected to Congress, represented the 34th District in the House from late June 2022 until early January 2023. She secured a special election victory to take over from former Democratic Representative Filemon Vela Jr., who had stepped down, and shifted the district to Republican control for the first time in more than ten years.
Her 2026 campaign will mark her third effort to defeat Gonzalez in the 34th District. She has previously lost: first in the 2022 election for a full-term position in the district, and again in the 2024 elections.
Last November, she fell short by 3 points against Gonzalez, leading to rumors that she might run again for the 34th District in 2026. However, she decided to contest Cuellar’s seat instead.
However, due to redistricting, which increases her chances, Flores believes she can outperform her Republican primary opponents — especially since she is the only one to have received an endorsement from former President Donald Trump. She mentioned that her dedication to attracting more Hispanic voters to the Republican Party contributed to the GOP’s successes in 2024, even though she personally lost.
In 2020, just 35% of Latino voters backed Trump. However, in 2024, Hispanic support for Trumprose to 43%.
“I addressed [Trump’s] rallies, traveled with him in key states, and participated in Hispanic roundtables, ensuring he received Hispanic backing. Why? Because it was crucial for me to help President Trump secure the victory, and we achieved this by providing him with the highest level of Hispanic support any president has ever received,” Flores stated.
“Now, with the newly redrawn districts that better reflect the true image of Texas, I think we will secure South Texas and ensure it becomes a Republican area,” said the former congresswoman.
Because the filing deadlineIt isn’t until September that Flores can smoothly move her campaign from Cuellar’s district to Gonzalez’s. The primary election is scheduled for early 2026.
Gonzalez and Cuellar, seen as two of the most conservative Democrats in Congress, are likely to be key focuses for House Republicans as the 2026 midterms approach. To reclaim control of the House, Democrats need to gain at least three seats, a goal that aligns with historical patterns showing the lower chamber typically shifts to the party not in the White House during midterm elections.
The latest redistricting warhas created a divide between Republicans and Democrats, with California Democrats trying to adjust their maps in an effort to counter any Republican victories in the Lone Star State. Otherred and blue statesare currently examining gerrymandering, leading to widespread demands to halt redistricting until the 2030 census.
As per Texas’s updated maps, the districts held by Cuellar and Gonzalez, which have a predominantly Hispanic population, are expected to see a slight shift in favor of the GOP. In the 2024 election, Trump secured 53% of the vote in Cuellar’s district and 52% in Gonzalez’s. Under the new proposed boundaries, the president could have received nearly 55% of the votes.
A survey carried out by 1892 Polling and provided to the Washington Examiner revealed that Flores is ahead of her Republican primary rivals in the 34th District, with her opponents receiving 5% or less support.
A survey of 400 potential primary voters in the newly established 34th District showed that Flores garnered 38%, with a margin of error of 4.9%. In Nueces County, which was recently included in the 34th District boundaries according to the updated maps, 26% of primary voters indicated they would support Flores, while other Republican candidates received single-digit percentages.
The former congresswoman’s most formidable opponent isEric Flores, an Army veteran and lawyer whose campaign energized Texas Republicans because of his law enforcement and military experience. The two Floreses are not connected. In the poll, he garnered 5%.
Mayra Flores stated that no other candidate in the race for the 34th District possesses the name recognition or experience she does, and she believes she offers the strongest opportunity to change the seat’s party affiliation to Republican.
“We are the clear victor in this primary,” Mayra Flores stated. “I want to ensure that in 2026, the midterms, we elect genuine Republicans and not RINOs,” which stands for Republicans In Name Only.
We don’t need anyone entering Congress who will oppose our core values and act like a moderate, saying no, we need someone who is a strong Republican, a solid conservative, and who won’t compromise and will do what’s right for the people they serve.
In July, Gonzalez mentioned that Mayra Flores might come back to contest him, according to a statement to the Texas Tribune on the occasion of Eric Flores’s campaign announcement.
If Mayra returns, she’ll outperform him and every other Republican primary candidate,” Gonzalez said. “So [Eric] needs to step up before reaching the general election. If our district doesn’t shift too much, we’ll defeat him or anyone else’s campaign, just like we have with the 19 candidates prior.
Gonzalez admitted that the maps might make his district more favorable to the GOP, saying, “The only way Republicans can defeat me is by cheating and altering the district boundaries.”
Mayra Flores stated that Republicans must match Democratic spending in order to secure victory in the 34th District. The 2024 rematch between Gonzalez and Mayra Flores became one of the priciest races in Texas.
She mentioned that Gonzalez’s voting history and legislation have placed him in opposition to the desires of the Hispanic community and the 34th District. She referenced abilllaunched in July to mandate that immigration enforcement officers visibly identify themselves while carrying out their duties. The legislation arises as Democrats have criticized Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents for wearing masks as they implement Trump’s large-scale deportation and unauthorized immigration policies.
Mayra Flores also criticized Gonzalez for his 2021 support of the Equality Act, which safeguards transgender individuals from discrimination. This vote became a key focus during the 2024 election cycle, with Republicans investing millions in advertisements alleging that he backed gender-affirming surgeries for young people.
This year, Gonzalez and Cuellar were the only two Democrats who supported the Republican-backed Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act, which prohibited federal funding for schools that permit transgender individuals to compete in sports.
Events like this are what cause our people in South Texas to distance themselves from him,” said Mayra Flores. “These are the issues that have led Hispanics to move away from the Democratic Party, as the party has shifted too far to the left. They’ve forsaken our values. They’ve abandoned us.
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And you might expect that following the 2024 election, they would realize the need for adjustments,” she added. “But no, they didn’t. They responded with, ‘Let’s escalate things.’
The Washington Examiner contacted Cuellar and Gonzalez for their response.
