(John McCann, Headline USA) In the wake of Mayra Flores‘s stunning victory in the recent South Texas congressional special election, Latino Democrats have demanded an emergency meeting with Democrat leadership.
Texas Democrats Sylvia Garcia, Veronica Escobar and others have sought an audience with Democratic National Committee leadership to discuss the Latino revolt, reported the Daily Caller.
“The DNC, the [Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee], and all the Democratic national groups really need to take a hard look at what happened,” Garcia said of the Flores win.
“I realize this is a special, but it’s still given the Republicans a narrative to say: ‘We flipped a seat.’ And we should have done better.”
Rep. Vicente Gonzalez, who is set to face Flores in November, took DCCC chair Sean Patrick Maloney aside and implored him to change the party’s outreach strategy before the Texas trends go national.
“They have just forgotten about the brown people on the border. And that’s basically what it is,” Gonzalez lamented.
“I’m not going to try to sugarcoat it anymore. They are taking Latinos in South Texas for granted.”
The district that Flores carried had been held by Democrats for nearly a century, and the defeat has left many Democrats blindsided. Rep. Chuy García, D-Ill, who represents a majority-Hispanic district in Chicago, has blamed the loss on Democrat divestment in Latino constituencies.
Garcia argued that “our historic disinvestment caught up to us,” and warned “we’re on our heels, and we need to invest heavily.”
This shift among Latino voters is not a new trend. Hispanics swung significantly toward Donald Trump and the GOP in 2020 and those swings are not looking like an anomaly. A Quinnipiac poll from May showed President Biden’s Hispanic approval at a measly 26%. The same poll also revealed that 46% of Hispanics would prefer a GOP-controlled Congress.
Despite these ominous omens for their future prospects, DCCC chair Maloney downplayed the historic defeat as a fluke and that the newly redistricted seat will be retaken in November. Maloney has faced criticism for the apparent lack of funds in these vulnerable Latino areas and his GOP counterpart is bullish about future gains.
Tom Emmer, chair of the NRCC, touted Republican messaging as the reason for the GOP surge among Hispanics.
“Our guys, we’re talking about inflation and the economy and crime and the border,” he said.
“We are actually more in touch with the voters than our colleagues on the other side of the aisle.”
Only time will tell, but given the recent trends and the faltering economy, this South Texas defeat may only be the tip of the iceberg for Democrats, as November draws closer and closer.
