Earlier this week, we told you about a series of racist blog posts about Texas GOP Rep. Mayra Flores written by a guy who’d been paid by Dem. Rep. Vicente Gonzalez’s campaign.
My far left opponent, Vincent Gonzalez, hired a local blogger to run hateful & racist ads against me!
But, I love frijoles & I grew up eating frijoles. I am not embarrassed of my upbringings & frijoles w/tortillas de harina is simply the best. Here's to Miss Frijoles 2022 #TX34 pic.twitter.com/7z5SRGCfUv
— Mayra Flores (@MayraFlores2022) July 18, 2022
The language first surfaced three days after Gonzalez’s campaign wrote a $1,200 check to The McHale Report blog June 24 for “advertising services,” according to the Democrat’s Federal Election Commission finance report.
But the blog, which has called Flores “Miss Frijoles” 21 times since then, has not published any Gonzalez ads.
Flores, in a Twitter post Monday, accused the Gonzalez campaign of paying “a local blogger to run hateful & racist ads against me,” a charge that the Gonzalez campaign and blogger Jerry McHale deny. They both told NBC News that the timing of the attacks were coincidental, that the congressman didn’t pay for any of the inflammatory posts, know about them or have any control over them.
“Of course, the congressman is against referring to Rep. Flores as ‘Miss Frijoles’ or a ‘cotton-picking liar’,” Gonzalez’s campaign manager, Collin Steele, wrote in a text message to NBC News, echoing the state Democratic Party chair and other Texas Democrats who denounced the language as well.
…
“Politics in South Texas and the Rio Grande Valley is blood sport. It’s very personal. And they play to win,” said Colin Strother, a veteran Texas Democratic consultant.
Still, he said, the language in McHale’s blog and Gonzalez’s decision to advertise with him were surprising — Gonzalez last year paid McHale $1,000 for advertising, and the blog is full of posts with racist, crude and bigoted language, like the use of the N-word and derogatory references to women’s private parts, including Flores’ body.
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Classy stuff, huh?
Well, yesterday, Rep. Gonzalez tweeted out a message regarding the offensive blog posts:
— Vicente Gonzalez (@VoteVicente) July 20, 2022
“We had no idea that the blogger we’d paid on multiple occasions had a long record of posting racist and misogynistic material that was out there in the open for everyone to see! Also, Mayra Flores totally condones racism!”
you paid for a racist and misogynistic ad against your opponent @MayraFlores2022 and then have the audacity to put out this sort of crap? #tx34 https://t.co/3g0Z7Ph0z0
— kaitlin, by definition, a woman (@thefactualprep) July 21, 2022
This is an apology? https://t.co/IEAQZnthUP
— Mr. Frank 🏌️♂️🥳⛷🏛 (@MrFrankUS) July 21, 2022
This is not an apology.
— Jay (@OneFineJay) July 21, 2022
It’s not an apology. It’s Vicente Gonzalez trying to avoid responsibility and make a half-assed attempt at whataboutism in order to make Mayra Flores like she’s the one who committed the real offense.
Just. Wow.
Gonzalez's campaign paid for what ended up being a series of racist attacks against his opponent, and instead of an apology, he's just using it as a launchpad to further attack her. Really outstanding stuff. https://t.co/PXALdywQBh
— prag ㋬ (@pragmatometer) July 21, 2022
You are such a coward, dude.
— Bonchie (@bonchieredstate) July 20, 2022
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