Former Rep. Mayra Flores, the millennial Republican who unseated a border-district Democrat amid the Biden administration’s border challenges, defended Texas redistricting, dismissing critics’ claims that it disenfranchises minority voters.
“Four of the five new districts are actually Hispanic-majority districts. And, remember, in the previous map, the Democrats’ biggest complaint was that Hispanics were not represented well,” Flores, who is reportedly considering a 2026 congressional run, told Fox News Digital.
Flores argued that much of the left’s criticism of the new district lines is politically motivated.
“They’re upset because these Hispanics – they’re conservative Hispanics – have voted for President Trump. This map actually is more of a representation of what Texas is today,” said Flores, who was born in Tamaulipas, now one of Mexico’s most violent states due to cartel activity. It borders her former district.
In 2024, 12 of 14 Texas border counties voted Republican and supported President Donald Trump, including one county that had not gone Republican since 1912.
Flores won a 2022 special election for the then-34th District, but later lost the seat to Rep. Vicente Gonzalez.
“Conservative Hispanics contribute to the political landscape by supporting Republican candidates and policies, particularly on issues such as economic development, family values, religious freedom, and, of course, border security,” she said.
She added that liberal groups have sued over the maps, showing surprise at the level of Hispanic support in Texas for conservative policies and border security.
Flores stressed that Hispanics and Latinos are not a monolithic voting bloc for the left. She cited Florida, where Latinos and other minorities backed Trump in large numbers, noting Cuban-American lawmakers Reps. Maria Salazar and Carlos Gimenez of Miami-Dade are Republicans.
Politicians, she said, should use redistricting to ensure congressional districts proportionally reflect their state’s political and ethnic makeup.
Critics have pointed to New England, where no state currently has a Republican in Congress despite conservative communities in Massachusetts, Maine, and Connecticut.
Meanwhile, Democrats have denounced the mid-decennial redistricting as a Trump-orchestrated power grab.
“The Don demanded. The Texas Legislature complied. Voters got hurt,” read a Monday editorial in the San Antonio Express-News. The paper accused Republicans of “diluting” Latino and Black representation by “packing them into districts where they have more of a majority than needed to win representation of those seats” or “dispersing them into multiple districts where they lack the numbers to have a say in who their representatives are.”
The editorial also highlighted the merging of Reps. Lloyd Doggett and Gregorio Casar into the same district near Austin. Casar, a millennial “Squad” member, told NPR the new map aims to “silence the voices of my constituents and get folks like me out of Congress,” claiming it violates the Voting Rights Act. Doggett indicated he may not run again if forced into a primary against Casar.
Bexar County, home to San Antonio, voted roughly 55-45 for former Vice President Kamala Harris but also counts Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, among its representatives. Reports indicate the new map would increase Republican proportional representation there.
In California, roughly half Democratic and left-leaning independent, only nine of 52 congressional districts are held by Republicans. Maryland lawmakers recently redrew a district once described as a “broken-winged pterodactyl” that included several noncontiguous pieces of Baltimore suburbs.
Flores said states like Texas, Florida, California, and New York merit congressional redistricting reviews, particularly considering migration trends from the latter two to the former.
“We want to make sure every congressional district reflects the overall state, and for critics to say that this [Texas] map silences the voices of minorities is misleading when four of the five districts are actually Hispanic majority,” she said.
“Look, Hispanics are shifting toward the Republican Party and will continue to support it because the Democrat Party has moved so far left. After 2024, you would think they would have learned and moved more toward the center,” Flores added.
“Let’s see what happens in the 2026 midterms.”
