Flores Hits Gonzalez in Texas Race: 2019 Comments Show 'Racist Colors'

Republican charges of racism are the latest twist in a bitter congressional contest in Texas between Democratic Representative Vicente Gonzalez and Republican Representative Mayra Flores for the redrawn 34th Congressional District in Texas.

The charges came after a 2019 video resurfaced in which Gonzalez used questionable language to describe migrant farmworkers.

In a conversation from October 30, 2019, entitled "Meeting With the Mayor: Congressman Vicente Gonzalez," then-mayor of McAllen, Texas Jim Darling interviews Gonzalez on a range of issues, with the last segment on immigration.

Darling says that "nobody is solving the immigration issues," and Gonzalez suggests a program for "labor migration, in which they could come in as guest workers for a year or two, and after maybe five years they could ask for a green card."

He mentions labor shortages in agriculture and construction, and "conservative Republican groups" coming to his office "pushing for some kind of immigration relief."

Darling argues for a "need-based" immigration, as opposed to "merit-based," and jokes that it's not about "rocket scientists" coming into the country.

"Right," Gonzalez replies, "Somebody's gotta pick the fruit, and only little hands can do that," while imitating a fruit-picking motion with his right hand.

When asked about Gonzalez's comments in the video by Newsweek, Flores said that he was showing his "true, racist colors."

"I'm just blown away," she said. "I just honestly can't believe that i just heard that."

She added that the U.S. welcomes all immigrants, including scientists, doctors and teachers, and that immigrants don't just pick fruit.

She said that the country needs "serious" immigration reform, "and he's had three terms to come up with a bill, and he hasn't done so, and he never will, so he can continue using the issue every year."

The National Republican Congressional Committee, which is working to defeat Gonzalez, said his comments were "another xenophobic and racist attack on the people he hopes to represent."

Asked to clarify his comments, Gonzalez told Newsweek the issue is "nonsense," but went on to explain himself.

"America is diverse in its workforce," he said. "That means human hands have to do the job that the industrial equipment can't."

He added that "nobody in Congress is for child labor," if that's what "their small minds are trying to insinuate."

The barbs are flying from both sides in a race that has become unusually personal, as Republican gains in south Texas in 2020, coupled with Flores special election win, have set the stage for a contested election, despite the seat leaning Democratic.

After her June win, Gonzalez took a quick shot at his opponent in an interview with Newsweek, calling Flores an "unqualified opponent" who was "a pawn chosen by the Republican Party for a race they poured millions of dollars into for a seat that's going to last six months."

Gonzalez then went further, casting himself as the traditional Texan in the race, and Flores as an immigrant outsider.

"I wasn't born in Mexico," he said. "I was born in South Texas, the son of a Korean war veteran."

"I didn't come here through chain migration," he added. "I didn't come through asylum or amnesty or whatever."

Flores, who said during her first race that her family emigrated to the U.S. from Mexico "the legal way" when she was 6 years old, later said in an interview Gonzalez' attacks were "because I was born in Mexico."

The personal edge continued into the following month, when it was revealed that Gonzalez had used campaign funds to pay Texas political blogger Jerry McHale, who later went on to call Flores "Miss Frijoles" and "Miss Enchiladas."

Flores, who said she worked in the cotton fields in the small town of Memphis, Texas, since she was 13, was called a "cotton-pickin' liar" by McHale over those claims.

At that time, Gonzalez said he would no longer give campaign money to the blog.

Democrats who spoke with Newsweek said they didn't believe the newly resurfaced comments by Gonzalez would affect the race, and said it showed Republicans don't really have much against him.

Abel Prado, the executive director of the progressive organization Cambio Texas, who doesn't always see eye to eye with Gonzalez, said that he isn't big on "performative outrage."

"Let's be real about the underlying message of what he's trying to say, terrible jokes aside," Prado said. "America needs labor; our economy is built on labor."

Prado said that to Gonzalez's credit he's the type of politician who takes your call if you want to criticize him, and said he has faith that Gonzalez would be a better advocate for south Texas than Flores would.

"A comment like that sounds like something a poet laureate might say compared to things Trump would say," Prado said, "or Mayra, who's never had an original idea of her own."

But Flores entered the race with controversy of her own.

She bristled after her win when Fox News asked about her use of the #QAnon hashtags in past tweets referring to the conspiracy theory that claims Satan-worshiping Democratic elites run a child sex ring and control politics and media.

A DCCC research memo additionally claimed she believed the 2020 election was "stolen, illegitimate, and fraudulent," and that President Joe Biden is a criminal. It said she retweeted that Gonzalez's 2020 win was fraudulent, retweeted claims of election fraud in Arizona, Georgia, and Michigan, and retweeted claims that Black Lives Matter and Antifa "set up" the January 6 rioters.

A Texas Democratic operative said this is the time of year when opposition research is flying every which way, and people have to figure out what the facts are.

"But there's no mistaking the real fact, which is that Mayra Flores supports what happened on January 6 and is completely out of touch with the mainstream, middle of the road, everyday worker in that district," the source said. "The Republican Party is trying to dig up every misstatement a Democrat has made because that's the only way they can win."

But for Flores, Gonzalez comments weren't a misstatement.

"We want to work, all immigrants, not just those he says can only pick fruit and we need little hands," she said. "Wow, I'm just blown away he would say something like that."

"He should know better," she added.