A Texas blogger paid by Democratic Rep. Vicente Gonzalez’s marketing campaign is attacking Republican opponent Rep. Mayra Flores as “Miss Frijoles” and a “cotton-pickin’ liar,” prompting a wave of denunciations by fellow Democrats.
The language first surfaced three days after Gonzalez’s marketing campaign wrote a $1,200 verify to The McHale Report weblog on June 24 for “advertising services,” in accordance with the Democrat’s Federal Election Commission finance report.
But the weblog, which has referred to as Flores “Miss Frijoles” 21 instances since then, has not printed any Gonzalez advertisements.
Flores, in a Twitter post Monday, accused the Gonzalez marketing campaign of paying “a local blogger to run hateful & racist ads against me,” a cost that the Gonzalez marketing campaign and blogger Jerry McHale deny. They each instructed NBC News that the timing of the assaults have been coincidental, that the congressman didn’t pay for any of the inflammatory posts, learn about them or have any management over them.
“Of course, the congressman is against referring to Rep. Flores as ‘Miss Frijoles’ or a ‘cotton-picking liar’,” Gonzalez’s marketing campaign supervisor, Collin Steele, wrote in a textual content message to NBC News, echoing the state Democratic Party chair and different Texas Democrats who denounced the language as properly.
But McHale wouldn’t again down.
“I am a liberal Democrat. And it’s war against the Republican … I’m going to be merciless with her,” he instructed NBC News.
The controversy, which illustrates the blurred traces between paying political bloggers for promoting and advocacy, is the most recent flashpoint in the wild and rugged politics of Texas thirty fourth Congressional District, a majority-Hispanic seat that runs alongside the state’s southeast border with Mexico and has turn out to be a national proving ground for GOP outreach to Hispanic voters.
Flores final month turned the primary Republican to win the seat since 1870. She’s additionally the primary congresswoman born in Mexico. Two years earlier than Flores’ victory, then-President Donald Trump improved his margins there — together with most majority-Hispanic districts and counties nationwide — when in comparison with his 2016 numbers.
But Democrats be aware that Trump nonetheless misplaced throughout the boundaries of the thirty fourth Congressional District, they usually say Flores solely won as a result of the occasion didn’t spend a lot to contest her particular election after then-Rep. Filemon Vela, a Democrat, unexpectedly left the seat to hitch a legislation agency that lobbies in Washington. Gonzalez determined to problem Flores as soon as the seat he at the moment holds, the fifteenth Congressional District, became more Republican-leaning after it was redrawn by the GOP-led Legislature throughout redistricting.
Every week after Flores gained, Gonzalez instructed Newsweek, “I wasn’t born in Mexico … I didn’t come here through chain migration, I didn’t come through asylum or amnesty or whatever.” In his remarks, usually related to Republicans, Gonzalez additionally described Flores as “unqualified,” a criticism usually thought of sexist.
“Politics in South Texas and the Rio Grande Valley is blood sport. It’s very personal. And they play to win,” mentioned Colin Strother, a veteran Texas Democratic advisor.
Still, Strother mentioned, the language in McHale’s weblog and Gonzalez’s determination to promote with him have been shocking — Gonzalez final yr paid McHale $1,000 for promoting, and the weblog is filled with posts with racist, crude and bigoted language, like using the N-word and derogatory references to ladies non-public components, together with Flores’.
“The attitude doesn’t surprise me. The mindset doesn’t surprise me. A Democratic member spending money with someone using that kind of language? Yeah, that surprises me,” Strother mentioned. “It’s a little outside the bounds. There are other places to spend your money.”
Other native candidates through the years have employed McHale for promoting, a nod to the salience of his weblog, which earned him the sobriquet “Brownsville’s blogfather.” McHale acknowledges it’s onerous to inform the distinction to the untrained eye between his weblog posts and advertisements from candidates, however he mentioned he’s not a pay-for-play blogger and would attack Flores anyway as a result of she’s a Republican.
McHale mentioned it was “perfect” to explain Flores as a “cotton-picking liar” as a result of he doesn’t consider her story that she picked cotton as a farm laborer together with her immigrant mother and father.
He additionally mentioned he plans to check Flores to Latino dishes.
“I don’t see it as a racist remark,” he mentioned. “It’s just about food. It’s just satire. It’s just me making fun of her. When does political correctness go overboard?”
The timing of such assaults would come on the heels of a spokesman for first girl Jill Biden apologizing for her reference to tacos when praising the range of Latino communities at an occasion final week. The National Association of Hispanic Journalists condemned her feedback, saying, “We are not tacos.”
Chuck Rocha, a Texas Democrat who is without doubt one of the nation’s prime Latino-outreach consultants, mentioned the McHale weblog’s feedback about Flores have been clearly offensive: “I find it racist as a Mexican. All of those things are derogatory, no matter what your party is.”
Texas Democratic Chairman Gilberto Hinojosa, who turned the primary Latino to win the put up in 2012, sounded shocked when instructed of the posts about Flores.
“You’re kidding,” he mentioned. “If it’s true, it’s improper. I don’t know who it is. I don’t know anything about it. I would be surprised if Congressman Gonzalez hid behind bloggers. That’s not his style.”
In her accusation on Twitter, though, Flores tried to flip things around on the blog attacks.
“I love frijoles & I grew up eating frijoles,” Flores said on Twitter. “I am not embarrassed of my upbringings & frijoles w/tortillas de harina is simply the best. Here’s to Miss Frijoles 2022 #TX34.”
Gonzalez, in his statement to NBC News, struck a similar tone.
“I agree that frijoles are delicious and good and am against all offensive language,” he said.
