Mayra Flores Shifts Focus to 34th District in 2026 Bid
Former Republican Congresswoman Mayra Flores, who previously ran for the 28th District against Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-TX), is now shifting her focus back to the 34th District, where she previously served as a congresswoman. This marks her third attempt to unseat Rep. Vicente Gonzalez (D-TX) in the district, which has seen significant changes due to recent redistricting.
Flores initially announced her campaign against Cuellar in April, citing the need to challenge a Democratic representative in a district that had been more favorable to Republicans. However, after Texas redrew its congressional maps, which added five new GOP seats and widened Republican margins in existing districts, Flores changed her strategy.
Internal polling showed that Flores would outperform other declared GOP candidates running against Gonzalez in the 34th District. As a result, she decided to abandon her bid against Cuellar and instead focus on the 34th District, where she believes she has a stronger chance of success.
“I believe the best decision is for us to continue the work that we started back in 2021,” Flores said in an interview with the Washington Examiner. “After redistricting, the 34th District is a lot more leaning Republican.”
Flores made history as the first Mexico-born female member of Congress, serving in the House from late June 2022 to early January 2023. She won a special election to replace former Democratic Rep. Filemon Vela Jr., flipping the district red for the first time in over a decade.
Her 2026 bid will be her third attempt to beat Gonzalez in the 34th District. She lost twice before: once in the 2022 election for a full term and again in the 2024 elections. Last November, she came within 3 points of Gonzalez, sparking speculation about another run in 2026. Instead, she chose to challenge Cuellar.
However, with the new redistricting, Flores believes her chances have improved. She noted that she is the only candidate in the race to have received an endorsement from President Donald Trump. She also emphasized her efforts to bring more Hispanic voters into the Republican Party, which contributed to GOP victories in 2024 despite her own loss.
In 2020, only 35% of Latino voters supported Trump. By 2024, that number rose to 43%. Flores credited her work at Trump’s rallies, traveling with him in swing states, and conducting Hispanic round tables for helping increase his support.
“Why? Because it was important to me to get President Trump the win, but with Hispanic support, and we did that by giving him the most Hispanic support any president has ever gotten,” Flores said.
She believes the new redistricting maps, which better reflect the demographics of Texas, will help Republicans secure South Texas. The filing deadline for candidates is not until September, allowing Flores to shift her campaign back to the 34th District if needed.
Gonzalez and Cuellar, both considered among the most conservative Democrats in Congress, are prime targets for House Republicans heading into the 2026 midterm elections. Democrats only need a net gain of three seats to regain the House majority.
The latest redistricting efforts have sparked a nationwide debate, with California Democrats attempting to redraw their maps to counter potential GOP gains. Other red and blue states are also considering gerrymandering, leading to calls for a pause in redistricting until the next census in 2030.
According to Texas’s new maps, the districts represented by Cuellar and Gonzalez, which are overwhelmingly Hispanic, will become slightly more favorable to the GOP. In 2024, Trump received 53% in Cuellar’s district and 52% in Gonzalez’s. With the new proposed lines, he would have received almost 55% of the vote.
An internal poll conducted by 1892 Polling found that Flores leads her GOP primary opponents in the 34th District, while her competitors receive 5% or lower. In a survey of 400 likely primary voters in the newly redrawn 34th District, Flores received 38%, with a margin of error of 4.9%.
In Nueces County, which was newly added to the 34th District under the new maps, 26% of primary voters said they would support Flores, compared to other GOP candidates who received single digits.
Flores’s closest competition is Eric Flores, an Army veteran and attorney whose candidacy excited Texas Republicans due to his law enforcement and military background. The two Floreses are not related. In the poll, he received 5%.
Mayra Flores said no one else in the race for the 34th District has the name ID or experience that she has, and she is confident she would be the best chance to flip the seat red.
“We are the clear winner for this primary,” Mayra Flores said. “I want to make sure that this 2026 midterms, we elect strong Republicans and not RINOs.”
She emphasized the need for strong, conservative candidates who align with the values of their constituents.
Gonzalez suggested in July that Mayra Flores could return to challenge him, stating that she would “mop the floor” with any other Republican primary candidate.
“[Eric] needs to get in line before he gets to the general election. If our district doesn’t move too much, we’ll kick his or anyone else’s ass, just as we have the 19 candidates before,” Gonzalez said.
Gonzalez acknowledged that the maps could make his district more GOP, stating that the “only way Republicans can beat me is by cheating and changing the district maps.”
Flores said that Republicans will need to match Democratic spending to win in the 34th District. In 2024, the rematch between Gonzalez and Flores was one of the most expensive in Texas.
She criticized Gonzalez for his voting record and bills, which she claims go against the wishes of the Hispanic community and the 34th District. She pointed to a bill introduced in July to require immigration enforcement officers to clearly display themselves while enforcing the law. The bill comes as Democrats have criticized ICE officers for wearing masks during Trump’s mass deportation agenda.
Flores also criticized Gonzalez for his 2021 vote for the Equality Act, which protects transgender people from discrimination. That vote was a major target of the 2024 cycle, with Republicans spending millions on ads accusing him of supporting sex change surgeries for minors.
Earlier this year, Gonzalez and Cuellar were the only two Democrats to vote in favor of the GOP-led Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act that banned federal funds to schools allowing transgender people to participate in sports.
“Things like this, it’s what pushes our people in South Texas away from him,” Flores said. “These are the things that have turned Hispanics away from the Democrat Party, because the Democrat Party has gone so far left. They’ve abandoned our values. They’ve abandoned us.”
“And you would think that after the 2024 election, that they would wake up and make some changes,” she added. “And no, they didn’t. They said, ‘Let’s take it up a notch.’”
