Lessons learned from Mayra Flores victory in Texas

NEWS AND OPINION:

Rep.-elect Mayra Flores of Texas summed up her victory in a special election in the 34th Congressional District on Tuesday night as heaven-sent. She broke the longtime Democratic hold on the district, which a Republican had only won once in the past four decades.

Here is the candidate’s comment on her victory.

“We have officially started the red wave! God, family, country,” Ms. Flores said in a post-victory tweet on Wednesday.

“God heard our prayers,” said the candidate, who counted the phrase “Make America Godly Again” as one of her campaign mottoes.

People of note noticed. None other than billionaire Elon Musk stepped up to publicly support Ms. Flores and her victory.

“I voted for Mayra Flores — first time I ever voted Republican. Massive red wave in 2022,” Mr. Musk predicted in a tweet on Wednesday.

Ms. Flores responded to the billionaire herself.

“Welcome to the Republican Party! We welcome all … from all walks of life. The party of opportunity, prosperity, and freedom is here to stay. We look forward to working together and building a better future for all of America,” she wrote.

Her victory is a stark warning for Democrats.

“South Texas border communities are traditionally deep blue Hispanic strongholds, but the Biden administration ignores the border crisis at its own political peril,” wrote Bill Melugin, a Fox News correspondent who spends much of his time reporting, boots-on-the-ground style, in Texas, Arizona and New Mexico.

“Voters along the U.S.-Mexico border are fed with President Biden’s never-ending border crisis and his empty promises to fix it. They’re voting Republican in November,” adds Torunn Sinclair, spokesperson for the National Republican Congressional Committee in a statement shared with Inside the Beltway.

A ‘BLUEPRINT FOR SUCCESS’

“Mayra Flores was the perfect candidate for this district because she is a product of the American Dream and her story resonated with voters,” the National Republican Congressional Committee noted in a timeline of events leading up to her victory in the Texas election.

“Flores was born in Mexico and immigrated to the United States when she was young. She grew up in the Rio Grande Valley working in the cotton fields alongside her parents, and is the wife of a U.S. Border Patrol agent, a mother of four, and a frontline health care worker. Mayra was able to flip this district because she focused on issues that affect all voters’ lives (border security, crime, and rising costs) while Democrats focused on far-left issues,” Michael McAdams, NRCC communications director, said in a statement.

“Mayra’s victory proved we have the blueprint for success in South Texas, and it sets Republicans up for even greater success in November. This is the first of many Democrat-held seats that will flip Republican in 2022,” Mr. McAdams predicted.

THE ‘RED WAVE’ PRESS

Predictions or warnings that a Republican “red wave” would descend on the nation were many in the past 24 hours following the aforementioned Mayra Flores’ victory, along with other promising indicators that the GOP would do well in the coming midterm election.

Here’s a sampling of which news organizations unleashed the “red wave” in their headlines or coverage: The Washington Times, The New York Times, Fox News, Politico, The Hill, the New York Post, Salon, Newsweek, the Washington Examiner, the Free Beacon, Business Insider, the Boston Herald, Rolling Stone, the Bulwark, York Dispatch.

There are more, but you get the idea.

FOR THE LEXICON

“Economic baloney.”

This handy phrase comes to us courtesy of a New York Post headline. That was how the Post editorial page characterized President Biden’s typical public messages about the nation’s economy.

“The malarkey never stops with Joe Biden. The president doubled down Tuesday on his economic delusions for a crowd of union members in Philadelphia: ‘I don’t want to hear any more of these lies about reckless spending. We are changing people’s lives,’” the Post wrote in an editorial.

“His policy has changed people’s lives: for the worse, by sticking Americans with crushing inflation, a tanking stock market and a looming recession — precisely through his reckless spending, his war on the U.S. energy industry and other policies,” the news organization pointed out.

“Bottom line: Our president is in complete denial about both the perilous state of the U.S. economy and where the blame for it lies. Until he gets his head out of … the clouds, inflation and all our other economic woes are only going to get worse.”

A CONVERSATION OF NOTE

The OSS Society is a charitable organization that honors the historic accomplishments of the Office of Strategic Services — a World War II-era predecessor to the CIA. On Thursday, the organization will feature a conversation between Susan M. Gordon, former principal deputy director of national intelligence, and Ellen McCarthy, assistant secretary of state for the bureau of intelligence and research.

The unique and accomplished pair will have a 90-minute conversation titled “The Digital World: Killing Espionage & Saving Intelligence,” to be centered on how the digital environment is revolutionizing the craft of intelligence.

The online event gets underway at 6 p.m. EDT; find it at gordonmccarthy.eventbrite.com.

Also find the link, other conversations and pertinent details at OSSSociety.org, under the “Latest News” heading. The event is part of the society’s ongoing “Oh So Social” Conversation Series.

POLL DU JOUR

• 68% of U.S. adults say the nation is “moving toward a time” when COVID-19 won’t interrupt daily life.

• 50% say the news media exaggerate the threat of COVID-19.

• 42% say they already have returned to their “normal, pre-COVID life.”

• 35% say people around them have moved on from the pandemic, but they themselves have not.

• 33% say it will be more than a year — or “never” — before they return to normal life.

• 31% say the pandemic is over.

SOURCE: An Axios/Ipsos poll of 1,079 U.S. adults conducted June 10-13.

• Follow Jennifer Harper on Twitter @HarperBulletin.