WTF Texas!!!!! Republicans flip U.S. House seat in South Texas, historically a Democratic stronghol

[jimfields33]

https://www.texastribune.org/2022/06/14/texas-special-election-tx-34-mayra-flores-dan-sanchez/amp/

Republicans flip U.S. House seat in South Texas, historically a Democratic stronghold

Mayra Flores, a Republican, won a special election to fill the unexpired term of U.S. Rep. Filemon Vela. Another election will be held in November.

Republican Mayra Flores prevailed Tuesday in a special election for an open congressional seat in South Texas, marking a major breakthrough for Republicans eager to blaze new inroads in the historically blue region.

She beat Dan Sacnchez, the leading Democrat, outright in the closely watched race, according to Cook Political Report.

[SoCalDavidS]

1. Democratic Party Would Be Smart To Avoid Spending Any $$$$$$$ In TX nt

[jimfields33]

3. So frustrating because it's a Hispanic majority district that went for

President Biden in 2020.

[thatdemguy]

6. I heard its 84% Hispanic.

[jimfields33]

8. I heard that as well.

Democratic Party must reengage with Hispanics starting now. It’s an emergency quite frankly.

[Effete Snob]

14. Absolutely

Re-engaging with one of the most reliable anti-choice voting groups will be interesting.

[mucifer]

18. They did just buy up a bunch of Spanish talk radio stations:

https://www.npr.org/2022/06/05/1103145047/a-group-of-spanish-radio-stations-are-being-sold-to-a-new-democratic-latino-grou

[CanonRay]

15. I lived there

All these people care about is local elections. Turnout was probably shitty.

[Polybius]

21. For our side it was

Apparently not for theirs.

[wanderer54]

22. Less than 30,000 votes

Less than 30,000 votes were cast in this special election whereas
more than 200,000 were cast in the general election in 2020.

[SunImp]

19. The Democratic party already spent some $$$ money in Texas in a few races

Was there any spent on this one?

[dem4decades]

2. That's not good.

[Bev54]

4. Have you seen Beto and Abbott's numbers, it makes me sick.

[jimfields33]

7. Definitely. Beto is such a good person.

[PortTack]

20. Sad...TX could do so much better, yet they choose trash instead

[Historic NY]

5. Wake up Texas

[ZonkerHarris]

9. Texas is stupid.

[herding cats]

10. She'll lose in November in the redrawn district.

But, still this sucks. This district was a +4 Biden district. Turnout was practically nil.

[jimfields33]

11. Sure hope so. Never should have won tonight.

[herding cats]

13. Oh, I definitely agree. People should have voted.

I despise special elections like this one. They felt it didn't matter and just didn't bother to vote. On both sides but enough more on the D side.

[In It to Win It]

12. I was gonna ask about turnout

I imagine turnout would not have been that great.

[Cha]

27. So, I was looking for a bit of

good news on that and looks like I found it.

Mahalo, Cat

The District doesn't change to Re-Districting until November?

Who do you think will beat Flores then?

💙💛

[herding cats]

29. It changes over when the new districts take effect in November.

She'll be facing Rep Vicente Gonzalez who is representing the 15th district currently. He'll beat her handily is my prediction.

Glad to offer up some happy news, but dang why can't people vote like it's their civic duty? Because it is!

[Cha]

31. Not only their "civic duty" but

as if their lives depend on it.. because in many cases it does!

Gracias for the Vincente Gonzalez news.. I saw it down thread after I posted to you.. Yay!!

[Polybius]

30. Especially on our side

Their side much turned out substantially more, which is a horrific sign for November.

[luvallpeeps]

16. This defies logic

I honestly don’t understand this. Heartbreaking.🫣❤️?🩹

[nycbos]

17. Given what happened in November in South Texas this isn't a surprise.

[pecosbob]

23. This special election was to replace a retiring Dem and only runs until January

The seat will likely be retaken in the November election.

Vicente Gonzalez, who currently represents a neighboring district, is the Democratic nominee for November, and is widely favored to win the race against Ms. Flores, who is also running to fill the seat permanently in November.

[LeftInTX]

25. I'm still pissed at Filemon Vela for quitting to be a lobbyist or whatever. It could have waited

[Cha]

28. Yay! Viva Vincente Gonzalez .. Gracias!

💙💛

[JCMach1]

33. People just staying home in the South TX heat knowing Nov. Is a lock

[manicdem]

36. It's going to be very tough

Gonzales won 50% to 47% in the 2020 election.

[Rstrstx]

42. He'll be running in a much more favorable district

It was redrawn to be solidly Democratic.

[LeftInTX]

24. I don't know why Filemon Vela had to resign now. He could have finished this out

He's gonna work at prestigious Akin Gump (yeah the name doesn't sound prestigious but it is) as either a lobbyist or an attorney.

Those jobs are always available. I doesn't make sense to me why he did this.

[Amishman]

32. Perhaps he sees what is coming

We're barrelling full tilt towards recession. Interest rates need to go up a lot and the Fed hasn't even really started reducing their balance sheet.

Russia / Ukraine looks like it could drag out for months or even years, which will keep food and fuel prices rising.

Unless we can turn things around fast, post November there will probably be fewer cushy openings for former politicians, and a lot more competition from those.

Reading this thread has been depressing, I don't think enough appreciate just how much economic issues matter compared to everything else.

[LeftInTX]

41. He just wanted $$$$$$$. He stated that he didn't think the seat would flip..

Stupid...

Everyone knows special elections are traps.

Speaking with The Texas Tribune hours before he submitted his resignation in March, Vela expressed confidence his seat would remain blue in a special election and said he was not aware of any efforts to get him to reconsider resigning.https://www.texastribune.org/2022/06/15/republicans-flip-house-seat-south-texas-mayra-flores/

And stupid for people not to encourage him to reconsider

[greenjar_01]

26. ...

[manicdem]

34. Vincente Gonzalez will be very tough

I've seen some posts that Gonzales will be a easy win in November. I'm not so sure. He won the 2020 elections 50% to 47%. With the current state of affairs, he's going to lose.

[Rstrstx]

43. See above post

He’s not running in the same district. Even this one Mayra won will be redrawn for November and will be more Democratic.

The best thing Democrats can do is force her to make some uncomfortable votes. Right now she has absolutely no record.

[Kingofalldems]

35. Well we know real Democrats will not be rioting

and threatening lives like republicans. And parading around with their army man guns at their side. And we generally don't taunt on republican forums when we win. Don't you agree?

[flying_wahini]

37. As a Texan I have to say that Tejanos (Latinos born here) vote because they are

Anti abortion, Catholic and blame migrants for giving them a bad name.
They will tell you this and there is no changing their minds.

[beaglelover]

38. Not a good harbinger for the elections in November, IMO.

[LeftInTX]

39. Democrats voted for the GOP candidate

One GOP analysis found that nearly half of the early voters — 47% — had Democratic primary voting history, while only 32% had Republican primary voting history and the rest had no primary voting history. (Texas does not have party registration, so campaigns try to approximate the partisan makeup of early vote turnout by looking at voters’ primary voting history.)

Democrats were seeing a similar breakdown in their early vote — and the projected Democratic turnout was even larger when they factored in other data.

Sanchez gave voice to that Democratic optimism when he suggested during an election-eve rally that he had a shot at winning the special election without a runoff.

“Our numbers are super close,” Sanchez said. “Out of all of the votes, the analysis puts us at 49% right now.”

But Flores ended up winning the early vote 47% to 46%, suggesting that a good chunk of voters with Democratic primary voting history crossed over to support her.

https://www.texastribune.org/2022/06/15/republicans-flip-house-seat-south-texas-mayra-flores/

[Meowmee]

40. More depressing news

It seems like T is a lost cause maybe...