Rep. Vicente Gonzalez will stay in Congress winning an incumbent-on-incumbent battle over Republican Mayra Flores in South Texas 34th District.
Mr. Gonzalez defeated Ms. Flores 52.7% by 44.3%, a strong indicator for Democrats that no historic wave was going to happen in Tuesday’s elections.
Ms. Flores had made history earlier this year by becoming the first Mexican-born woman to serve in Congress.
Mr. Gonzalez came under fire for attacks on Ms. Flores that were deemed as sexist, accusing her recently of not being able to think or speak for herself.
He also came under attack after a Texas blogger paid for by his campaign labeled Ms. Flores as “Miss Frijoles.”
The member-on-member race was the result on Texas’ new map reflecting the 2020 Census, and was one of the most closely watched races.
Republicans had hoped that another Flores victory would be an indicator of a tectonic shift in American politics — a shift of Hispanics from a reliably pro-Democratic constituency to an evenly-split group.
• Mica Soellner can be reached at msoellner@washingtontimes.com.
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