On Wednesday, The New York Times published Jennifer Medina's piece on Rep. Mayra Flores, highlighting her as "The Rise of the Far-Right Latina." The piece isn't just as bad as you think it might be, it's worse.
Early on in her piece, Medina wrote, with added emphasis:
Representative Mayra Flores became only the second Republican to represent the Rio Grande Valley after she won a special election last month and flipped the congressional seat from blue to red. She also became the first Latina Republican ever sent by Texas to Congress. Her abbreviated term lasts only through the end of the year, and she is seen as a long shot to win re-election to a full one.
But what is most striking is that Ms. Flores won by shunning moderates, embracing the far right and wearing her support for Donald J. Trump on her sleeve — more Marjorie Taylor Greene than Kay Bailey Hutchison.
Her campaign slogan — “God, family, country” — was meant to appeal to what she calls the “traditional values” of her majority-Hispanic district in the border city of Brownsville. She called for President Biden’s impeachment. She tweeted QAnon hashtags. And she called the Democratic Party the “greatest threat America faces.”
Not only does Medina underestimate Flores, as she's proven to do throughout her coverage of her, but she makes clear her disdain for those who would dare evoke God and traditional values in their campaigns.
And, of course, Medina goes with the QAnon concerns. It's not until towards the end of her piece that she mentions Flores deleted such hashtags and has been clear she doesn't support QAnon:
When asked about QAnon, Ms. Flores denied ever having supported the conspiracy theory, which claims that a group of Satan-worshiping elites who run a child sex ring is trying to control the government and the media. Hashtags have long been considered social media shorthand for expressing support for a cause or an idea, but Ms. Flores insisted her intention was to express opposition to QAnon.
“It’s just to reach more people so more people can see like, hey, this needs to stop,” she said of using the QAnon hashtag. “This is only hurting our country.”
Ms. Flores deleted the tweets about QAnon, but she did not refrain from expressing other right-wing views...
The piece also went after two other candidates, Cassy Garcia and Monica De La Cruz. Emphasis is added:
Two other Latina Republicans, Monica De La Cruz in McAllen and Cassy Garcia in Laredo, are also on the ballot in congressional races along the Mexican border. All three — G.O.P. officials have taken to calling them a “triple threat” — share right-wing views on immigration, the 2020 election and abortion, among other issues.
Again, Medina just doesn't get it. The Republican Party has been saying this for months. In May, Townhall attended a GOP press conference, where Flores was in attendance and gave remarks, to announce the launch of the Hispanic Leadership Trust (HLT) to support Hispanic candidates and Hispanic voter outreach.
Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY), whose E-PAC endorsed Flores, has been on message about this very point.
The Republican Party would be smart to reach out to Hispanic voters. As polls have consistently showed, President Joe Biden is losing support among this key demographic, to the point where such approval is in the 20s. He's also doing particularly poorly with young people, another key demographic for the Democratic Party.
His approval rating among Hispanics is no better in Texas.
??POLL ALERT??
— Giancarlo Sopo (@GiancarloSopo) July 6, 2022
Joe Biden's approval rating among Hispanics in Texas is just 30% and 24 points under water.
This explains the left-wing smear campaign against Hispanic Latinas like @CasandraLGarcia, @MayraFlores2022, and @monica4congress.
Democrats are panicking. pic.twitter.com/o6RjarQ6UZ
Rep. Flores was quick to respond to the piece over Twitter.
It amazes me that because my values are rooted in God, Family, and Country, the liberal media takes it upon themselves to attack me and label me ‘far-right’. But at least they used the word ‘Latina’ over their other made-up terms. Seguimos Adelante! pic.twitter.com/l03Nez3FcP
— Congresswoman Mayra Flores (@repmayraflores) July 6, 2022
She also retweeted tweets highlighting the biased take from the New York Times, considering that fellow Latina Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) was heralded by the outlet in a glowing feature piece that took three writers and was complete with video footage. "Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Emerges as a Political Star," it read, in June of 2018, four months before she won her election in a heavily Democratic district, and before she even took office.
Woke NYT so out of touch with hispanic voters praising radical socialist @AOC
— Natalia Godoy (@RedPillLatina) July 6, 2022
but calling first ever Mexican immigrant congresswoman @MayraFlores2022 "far-right latina" because she believes in God, family and freedom
And that's why you'll see the biggest #RedWave2022#LeadRight pic.twitter.com/WBPlNfvMrU
There's also bias in that statements from the candidates themselves or fellow Republicans are rarely mentioned. Democrats, however, when it comes to sowing doubt on how Flores can win in November, are granted several paragraphs.
Medina even tries to downplay how House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) pushed aside Flores' 8-year-old daughter at the swearing in ceremony when taking a picture, saying what happened "is a matter of debate."
Flores made history when she was elected through a special election in June to fill an open seat vacated by Democratic Rep. Filemon Vela. She beat the Democratic candidate, Dan Sanchez, with her 50.91 percent to his 43.37 percent, thus avoiding a runoff election.
Throughout all of her pieces on the congresswoman, though, Medina downplays that history, not mentioning how that the last time that part of the Rio Grande elected a Republican was in 1870. Medina also failed to mention how Flores is the first Mexican-born member of Congress. And, perhaps above all, Medina underestimates Flores' chances for the November election.
Flores has to run again in November, and Medina seems almost certain Flores won't win that time. "Republicans flip a Democratic-held House seat in South Texas, at least for now," read her headline from June 14.
We'll see about that, though. As our friends at Twitchy pointed out, the New York Times is "nervous." Flores very much intends to hang onto her seat. The congresswoman, as Spencer pointed out last month, believes she has "started the red wave" to come this November.
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