Trump backs newcomer over former congresswoman in Texas primary

Mayra Flores, a former Republican congresswoman from Texas’ Rio Grande Valley, is fighting to reclaim a House seat in a March 3 primary, but she faces a well-funded Trump-backed rival who has emerged as the frontrunner. Eric Flores, a lawyer and former federal prosecutor, received President Donald Trump’s endorsement in December—a move that shifted the race’s dynamics and prompted a better-funded candidate to drop out and back him.

Flores won a special election in 2022 to become the first Republican in more than 150 years to represent the Rio Grande Valley. Though she lost two subsequent races, her 2022 victory proved that Republicans could compete for working-class Hispanic voters in a region once considered safely Democratic.

The March 3 primary is a test of whether Republican gains in the Rio Grande Valley represent a sustained rightward shift or a temporary anomaly. Trump won every county in the region in 2024, suggesting significant advances, but Flores’ subsequent losses left uncertainty about the durability of Republican inroads in a region that has voted Democratic for generations.

Eric Flores’s case

Eric Flores brings the credentials of a federal prosecutor and former Army officer to his campaign. A Texas National Guard unit under his command patrolled the border, and he worked as a federal prosecutor in McAllen handling drug and human-smuggling cases.

“I’m going to take that same tenacity that I served in uniform on the border, the same tenacity fighting the cartels and the human smugglers in the federal courtroom – that’s what I want to take to D.C.,” he said.

But Eric Flores has characterized Mayra Flores as having squandered her opportunity. “Yeah, she had a short stint in Congress, but how about the remaining portion of her life?” he asked. “Fact is, she’s been a career candidate for almost six years, paying herself with campaign funds.”

Scott Mandel, an entrepreneur who had raised more than $1 million for his own campaign, withdrew from the race and endorsed Eric Flores after Trump’s December endorsement. Trump announced his support on Truth Social, writing: “Eric knows the Wisdom and Courage it takes to Ensure LAW AND ORDER.”

Why this race matters

Republicans have redesigned the district with an eye to ousting the Democratic incumbent, Vicente Gonzalez. Last fall, acting on pressure from Trump, the Texas Legislature redrew district boundaries to favor Republicans. The party aims to pick up as many as five Democratic House seats statewide, with three of them anchored in the Rio Grande Valley.

A Republican victory in the general election in November would solidify the party’s hold on a political battleground. A loss would suggest that the party’s recent victories in the Rio Grande Valley were temporary rather than the start of a lasting shift.

The Rio Grande Valley’s political transformation

The Rio Grande Valley sprawls 100 miles along the U.S.-Mexico border and is home to nearly 1.5 million people, nearly 90 percent of them Hispanic. For generations, the region was reliably Democratic, but that has shifted in recent years.

Between 2016 and 2020, Trump improved his margin in the region by double digits, though he narrowly lost the Valley and the presidency. Then came Mayra Flores’ 2022 victory. Two years later, Trump won every county in the region.

Mayra Flores responds

Mayra Flores, 40, has pushed back against the narrative that her political time has passed. She dismissed Trump’s endorsement of her rival as a decision made by Trump’s advisers rather than Trump himself.

She has questioned Eric Flores’ Republican credentials, noting that his father, Kino Flores, was a Democratic state lawmaker who was convicted of ethics crimes. She has also attacked his prosecutorial background, linking him to what she called the “Biden DOJ” that prosecuted Trump—though Eric Flores was a career lawyer in Texas not involved in the Trump prosecution or policy decisions made in Washington.

Among her supporters is Margaret Cervantes, a 69-year-old retiree from Harlingen. “For one, she’s strong,” Cervantes said after a campaign event. “And I haven’t heard her talk nasty about opponents.”

Mayra Flores has emphasized her record as the breakthrough candidate in a region written off by Republicans. “I did it when it was hard,” she said. “I ran so men like him could walk.”