Maya Flores Making the Right People Angry

The story of Rep. Mayra Flores captured the attention of the political sphere in June. The Latina Republican took down her Democrat challenger in a Texas district that had been blue for over a hundred years. In doing so, she didn’t just skate by either. She took a district that was D+14 in 2020 and won it by seven points.Of course, because Flores is a Republican, that means she must be destroyed, and the media are wasting no time in targeting her. The New York Times released a hit piece on Wednesday, painting the freshman congresswoman as a “MAGA Latina” who (gasp!) doesn’t take the January 6th committee seriously.

As her own oath of office coincided with the Jan 6 hearings, Ms. Flores largely dismissed the proceedings.
“Honestly, my district doesn’t care about that,” she said. “My district is struggling to pay their bills.”
The MAGA Latina goes to Congress. https://t.co/gORkxzrrTs
— Jennifer Medina (@jennymedina) July 6, 2022

We are going to dive into some of the details of the piece in a moment, but first, I’d like to just comment on the idea that Flores is “far-right.” Does that phrase have any meaning anymore? Or is it just thrown around like an epithet against any Republican the press doesn’t like, i.e. anyone to the right of Lar …