Texas Tribune / Michael Gonzalez
U.S. Rep. Vicente Gonzalez at his election evening watch celebration in Brownsville on Nov. 8, 2022.
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WASHINGTON — U.S. Rep. Vicente Gonzalez, a Democrat from McAllen, in contrast Hispanic Trump supporters to “Jews for Hitler,” prompting fierce backlash from Republicans as he runs for reelection in a largely Hispanic South Texas district.
In an interview with The New Republic printed Monday, Gonzalez warned that Democrats may quickly lose assist amongst socially conservative Hispanic voters in South Texas as Republicans more and more spend money on the world. He stated Hispanic voters are largely turned off by the anti-immigrant rhetoric coming from the highest of the Republican ticket, together with former President Donald Trump casting Mexican immigrants as “rapists.”
“In the event that they didn’t have that racist, divisive ingredient inside their celebration, they’d have plenty of Latinos, however they’ll’t appear to shake that off,” Gonzalez advised the journal. “The rhetoric you hear from the Republican Celebration is shameful and disgraceful for Latinos. And you realize, if you see ‘Latinos for Trump,’ to me it’s like seeing ‘Jews for Hitler,’ nearly, you realize?”
Republicans are pouring cash into unseating Gonzalez within the thirty fourth congressional district, which relies within the decrease Rio Grande Valley and contains Brownsville and Harlingen. Former U.S. Rep. Mayra Flores is operating for the seat after shedding to Gonzalez within the 2022 basic election. She had received the seat in a particular election only some months earlier, breaking a multi-generational streak of Democratic management in South Texas.
Flores is a vocal Trump supporter and blasted Gonzalez for evaluating Latino Trump supporters to Jewish Nazis.
“Disgrace on Vicente Gonzalez for referring to conservative Latinos on this method. He forgets they’re his constituents, too,” Flores stated on social media. “We have to elect new management in November, and that is precisely what the Rio Grande Valley will do.”
Different Republicans echoed Flores’ criticism. The Congressional Management PAC, a fundraising operation tied to Home Republican management, issued a press release calling the comment “completely disgusting” and pressuring voters “into voting a sure approach based mostly on their ethnicity.” The Nationwide Republican Congressional Committee additionally known as on Gonzalez to apologize.
When requested to make clear his feedback through textual content message, Gonzalez doubled down: “I don’t perceive how Mexican People can vote for” Trump.
“It’s clearly a vote towards self curiosity. And sure it might be just like the Jewish neighborhood voting for Hitler earlier than the atrocities he prompted. That will by no means occur. And Latinos want [to] get up and see a tyrant on the horizon,” Gonzalez stated.
Gonzalez added that Flores “needs to be calling out Trump” for his remarks about migrants.
Trump stated in December that migrants had been “poisoning the blood of our nation.” Fellow Republicans stated Trump’s feedback had been xenophobic and racist. His remarks mirrored Adolf Hitler, who stated Jews had been “poisoning” Aryan blood. Trump denied understanding that Hitler made related remarks.
The feedback and reactions spotlight the amplified consideration on the thirty fourth district, which was as soon as comfortably Democratic however is now one of many few aggressive districts within the state. Nationwide Republicans recognized the district as certainly one of its targets to flip within the basic election and have thrown their assist behind Flores.
Republicans have made progress in South Texas and are desperate to seize Gonzalez’s seat. Within the neighboring fifteenth congressional district, Republican U.S. Rep. Monica De La Cruz received her seat in 2022. Gonzalez beforehand represented the fifteenth district, and De La Cruz unsuccessfully challenged him in 2020. However her better-than-expected outcomes led Republicans to significantly contemplate pickup alternatives within the area. De La Cruz received her 2022 race after the district was redrawn to be extra favorable to Republicans.
Flores nonetheless faces challenges in her bid to unseat Gonzalez. District 34 is comfortably Democratic, and President Joe Biden would have received the world by 15.5 proportion factors. The fifteenth district was drawn in 2021 to be extra favorable for Republicans, and Trump would have received the district by 2.8 proportion factors.
However even within the Hispanic-majority inhabitants facilities in South Texas, Democrats’ maintain is weakening. De La Cruz misplaced Hidalgo County, the most important county within the fifteenth district, in 2022 by a significantly smaller margin than in 2020. In Cameron County, the most important within the thirty fourth district, Gonzalez received by solely 3.55 factors. 4 years earlier than, former Democratic Rep. Filemon Vela received the county by roughly 30 factors.
It’s a development Gonzalez takes severely. He advised Home Democratic management within the months earlier than the 2022 election they need to not take South Texas with no consideration. A rising neighborhood of conservative, evangelical Hispanic voters may very well be satisfied by Republican messaging, he warned on the time.
Democrats invested closely in defending Gonzalez that yr, which Gonzalez admitted was the toughest race since his first run for Congress in 2016.
Gonzalez dedicated plenty of gaffes within the 2022 cycle that Republicans had been fast to capitalize on. He contrasted himself with Flores, the primary Mexican-born congresswoman, by saying he was a local of the world and “wasn’t born in Mexico.”
“I didn’t come right here by way of chain migration, I didn’t come by way of asylum or amnesty or no matter,” he stated in an interview with Newsweek that yr.
Gonzalez’s marketing campaign additionally photoshopped an image of Flores to make her look extra menacing and paid a blogger that used racist slurs to explain Flores. Gonzalez minimize ties with the blogger after the racist language turned public.
This text initially appeared within the Texas Tribune.
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