Republican Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas announced Monday that an emergency special election would be held June 14 to fill a recently vacated seat for a Hispanic-majority congressional district on the border, increasing GOP hopes of flipping it red.
Candidates will have to file to run in the special election by April 13, while early voting will begin May 3, Abbott announced in a statement.
“I’m very glad that we’re going to be able to have a special election,” Mayra Flores, the Republican nominee for Texas’ 34th Congressional District, told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “This district does need someone to represent them.”
Democratic Rep. Filemon Vela resigned from his seat representing the district in Congress on Thursday in order to take a position at the Washington, D.C., law firm Akin Gump.
People wait in line to clear customs and enter the United States at the Paso Del Norte Port of Entry in downtown El Paso, Texas on November 8, 2021. (Photo by PAUL RATJE/AFP via Getty Images)
“I’m disappointed that we’ve been abandoned in such difficult times,” Flores told the DCNF. She cited issues at the border, as well as the increased costs of groceries and gas, as reasons the seat needed to be filled now. (RELATED: Are Latinos Really Abandoning Dems? Poll Analysis Gives New Insight)
“This will not only be one of the first Special Elections of the cycle, it will be a key opportunity for voters to send a message loud and clear that they reject Joe Biden and the Far-Left’s failed policies,” New York Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik told the DCNF in a statement, noting the election will “kick-off the Red Tsunami that will sweep across Southern Texas and our entire nation as Republicans take back the House.”
The district is overwhelmingly Hispanic, with almost 85% of its population identifying as such. It only voted for President Joe Biden by 4 points under its current lines but will be redrawn into a much bluer seat for the November general election.
“Now we’re going to be able to increase the funding to make sure … we are able to reach more people,” Flores said. “I’m very confident that we’re going to be able to win this special election.”
Flores’ opponent in the general election, Rep. Vincente Gonzalez, who currently represents Texas’s 15th Congressional District, has already said he would not campaign in a special election, the Texas Tribune reported.
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