RESULTS: Republican Mayra Flores flips a South Texas-based House seat in special election
Republicans flipped control of Texas' 34th Congressional District in a Tuesday special election.
The race & the stakes:
Republican Mayra Flores defeated Democrat Daniel Sanchez in a race to replace former Democratic Rep. Filemon Vela, who resigned from Congress in March. The winning candidate needed to earn over 50% of the vote to avoid an August runoff.
Flores' win successfully flips a majority-Hispanic South Texas House into the Republican column — but they may only hold onto the soon-to-be-defunct district for just a few months.
Vela who resigned from Congress in March to take a job at Akim Gump, a prestigious Washington lobbying and law firm. Four candidates, two Democrats and two Republicans, ran running in Tuesday's special election.
Flores will only serve out the rest of Vela's unfinished term until January 2023 — at which point the district, under its current lines, will cease to exist due to the once-in-a-decade redrawing of congressional lines following the 2020 Census.
Texas lawmakers redrew the 34th district to be significantly more favorable to Democrats in redistricting. The old 34th District voted for President Joe Biden by just four points in 2020, but the newly-redrawn district would have backed Biden by over 15 points, according to the Texas Tribune.
Democratic Rep. Vincente Gonzalez, who currently represents Texas' 15th District, announced, with Vela's full backing, that he would move districts and run to represent the 34th District for a full term after the new congressional lines made the 15th District more competitive but the 34th safer.
Flores, a healthcare worker and local Republican activist, defeated Sanchez, a lawyer. Flores was heavily favored to win the special election, having raised nearly $1.1 million and spent $977,000 compared to only $146,000 raised and $42,000 spent by Sanchez.
National Republican groups also poured over $350,000 of independent expenditure spending into the district towards electing Flores. The biggest chunk of outside money, over $200,000, has come from the Congressional Leadership Fund, a super PAC aligned with House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, in addition to investments by FreedomWorks and Americans for Prosperity Action.
House Majority PAC, aligned with House Democratic leadership, has invested a smaller sum of $115,000 towards independent expenditures opposing Flores, with national Democrats opting to focus their resources elsewhere in the lead-up to the November midterms given the Democratic lean of the new 34th District.