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With more than 83% of the population in the district identifying as Latino, and Cook Report giving the Democratic incumbent a nine point lead, Flores’ hard-right politics are at odds with her constituents. While she’s frequently touted her immigration roots as a way to tie herself to the community, she’s embraced the racist and antisemitic “replacement” theory pushed by some of the most extreme members of her party.

For example, Flores has welcomed an endorsement from fourth-ranking House Republican Elise Stefanik, who has echoed the same racist conspiracy theories as the racist mass murderers who attacked El Paso in 2019 and Buffalo in 2022. She also accepted thousands of dollars from former Speaker Kevin McCarthy, Stefanik’s superPAC, and Texas Rep. Brian Babin. The latter went on Fox News in 2021 to peddle the racist “white replacement” lies, claiming, “they [Democrats] want to change America, they want to replace the American electorate with third-world immigrants.”

Flores has also remained silent as GOP leaders have espoused violent and disqualifying rhetoric targeted at families both at the border and around the U.S.

Flores refused to condemn former President Trump for his despicable claims that immigrants are “poisoning the blood” of America. This incendiary language is virtually indistinguishable from Adolf Hitler’s rhetoric, but when given the chance to distance himself or disavow this horrific language, Trump instead doubled down. Republicans and their right-wing allies have also been engaged in a campaign spreading nativist conspiracies in order to justify subverting democracy amongst supporters, socializing the idea that any election result they do not like can be blamed on this conspiracy of fraudulent immigrant voters. Yet Flores has remained silent as Trump has echoed the language of dictators, and as her extreme friends have used immigrants to sow doubt and distrust in our electoral process.

Flores has also remained silent as Greg Abbott, the governor of her home state, called for “shooting” migrant families at the southern border. Flores has also been silent as House Speaker Mike Johnson made clear he intends to become an accomplice to Abbott’s cruelty at the border. In reported remarks to his caucus, Speaker Johnson said he would not take up any legislation that would constructively address the border as long as President Biden is in office.

Should Flores return to Congress next year, she’ll be a rubber stamp for the Republican agenda and their failed “chaos and cruelty” approach to the border. She offers no real solutions to address the concerns at the border while she and her friends embrace dangerous conspiracy theories, jeopardizing all our safety.

“The racist lies of ‘replacement,’ ‘invasions’ and ‘stolen’ elections have a real body count and all stem from the same sense that America is a country for and by white people,” America’s Voice Campaigns Director Mario Carrillo said in 2022. “They threaten the safety of voters and undermine the democratic process that Flores now represents … as the saying goes, ‘show me your friends and I will show you who you are.’ Reporters and voters alike should force Flores to state where she stands on the critical issue of rejecting racist and election lies.”
Floress friends are bullies and extremists who demonize our communities and have spent their time in the majority pushing dangerous conspiracies that threaten our public safety and our democracy. Flores’ friends show us exactly who they are.