Who is Mayra Flores: The First Mexican-born Woman Elected to Congress
Who is Mayra Flores: The First Mexican-born Woman Elected to Congress

For the next seven months, a slice of South Texas will be represented in Washington by Mayra Flores, a Mexican-born Republican woman from the Rio Grande Valley — a longtime Democratic region where Flores’ special election win on Tuesday marked several firsts.

Flores sailed to victory in Texas’ 34th District. In one of the most Latino districts in the country and one where Democrats have routinely won by comfortable margins for years, Flores garnered 51 percent of the vote, winning the special election without a runoff. The district lines are shifting for the next election in November 2022, but she will hold this seat until January.

Who is she? In this article, we will provide all we know about her below!

Who is Mayra Flores: Biography, Family, and Education

Mayra Flores was born and raised with humble beginnings in Burgos Tamaulipas, Mexico. Her parents and grandparents raised her with strong conservative values and to always put God and family first. She came legally to the United States at six years old with the help of her father. Her father gave her family the biggest gift, the gift of becoming proud, naturalized American Citizen.

Her parents were migrant workers, and like all migrant kids, she moved a lot growing up. She spent most of her life in the Rio Grande Valley and in 2004, she graduated high school in San Benito, TX. Growing up, Mayra worked alongside her parents in the cotton fields in Memphis, TX to earn extra money for school clothes and supplies. Instilling the value of hard work and the importance of education in her at a young age, Mayra remains a firm believer in the American Dream and will always fight so that others can achieve it as she has. She is eternally grateful to her parents for providing her with an opportunity to come to this amazing country to live the American Dream. Mayra graduated in 2014 as a Respiratory Care Practitioner with the support of her family. She currently works caring for the elderly and disabled with chronic respiratory issues and has been on the front lines of helping patients combat COVID-19. She continued her studies and graduated with a bachelor in Organizational Leadership from South Texas College. Mayra currently serves as the Hidalgo County GOP Hispanic Outreach Chair and has played a critical role in growing and maintaining Republican support across South Texas. She believes that having a strong relationship with the community and understanding the needs of each individual should be a requirement for any political candidate.

Mayra Flores’s height and weight

Mayra Flores’s height is approx 5 feet 6 inches tall, which is in centimeters it’s 167m and in meters it’s 1.67and has Black hair and black eyes, Mayra Flores’s weight is approx 62 kg, in pounds which is 136 Lbs. This is just an estimation made by watching Mayra Flores’s pictures.

Mayra Flores Husband & Children

Is Mayra Flores married? It is the most common question asked by her well-wishers after she has won the election. And to answer that, yes, Mayra Flores is a married woman. Mayra is currently married to her husband John Vallejo. Although Flores has not revealed much about her husband and their wedding to the public; we know that he is a U.S. Border Patrol agent. John Vallejo was born on Aug 19, 1984, and is 37 years old now. He will turn 38 later this year in 2022. Flores has talked about her husband on a few occasions through her Twitter and Instagram.

Through their marriage, Mayra Flores and her spouse have four children; two sons and two daughters. Their eldest son John Michael received the Sacrament of Confirmation in May 2022 and their youngest daughter Milani recently graduated kindergarten.

Mayra Flores Immigration

Flores, 36, was born in Burgos, Tamaulipas, Mexico. She immigrated to the United States when she was 6 years old and became a citizen at 14. She started working at 13, picking cotton with her parents in the Panhandle town of Memphis, to pay for her own school supplies and clothes.

Now the mother of four young children and the wife of a Border Patrol agent, she often starts her pitch to voters the same way: Soy el sueño americano. I am the American dream.

As such, immigration is a deeply personal issue. She supports heightened border security, immigration reform, and a legal path to citizenship.

“If we really care about immigrants and children, we wouldn’t want them to cross that dangerous river,” Flores said in March. “We wouldn’t want them to come across dangerous criminal organizations. If you really care about them, we’re going to have to help them come in through the door.”

Mayra Flores Career

Photo: ntd
Photo: ntd

Mayra Flores is a popular Mexican/American politician who is running in a special election to the US House to represent Texas’s 34th Congressional district, she is an elect for Texas’s 34th congressional district & her term will begin during the 117th congress following her victory in the special election. Mayra Flores declared her candidacy for the United States House of Representatives in Texas’s 34th Congress In-district following the announcement of incumbent democratic representative filemon Vela Jr retirement in 2021 & she ran her campaign appealing to Hispanic and Latino Mexican/Americans and their disillusionment towards the democratic party. Mayra Flores & Flores won their respective partisan primaries and will face each other in the upcoming general elections in November 2022, she won the special election on June 14 and became the first republican as well as the first woman elected from the Lower Rio Grande Valley.

2022 battleground election

Mayra Flores (R) defeated Dan Sanchez (D), Rene Coronado (D), and Juana Cantu-Cabrera (R) in a special general election for Texas' 34th Congressional District on June 14, 2022. The previous incumbent, Filemon Vela (D), resigned on March 31, 2022.

The Texas Tribune's Patrick Svitek said, "The winner of the special election will only get to finish Vela's term, which extends until January. But Republicans are eager to capture the seat as they try to gain new ground in South Texas, and the special election is happening under the previous, more competitive boundaries of the 34th District. The November election for a full term in Congress will be held under new district boundaries that were redrawn during last year's redistricting process."

Sanchez worked as a lawyer and was a county commissioner for Cameron County. Sanchez also served as a justice of the peace for Cameron County from 2003 to 2010. “I’m running for Congress to finish Congressman Filemon Vela’s term because South Texas deserves a representative who will focus on what matters: lower costs, affordable healthcare, safe communities, and a secure retirement," Sanchez said

Flores worked as a respiratory care practitioner, and she served as the Hidalgo County GOP Hispanic Outreach Chair. In addition to running in the special election, Flores is also on the ballot for the regular general election on November 8 after advancing from the March 1 Republican primary. Flores said the election would "set the tone for the entire nation in the upcoming midterms" and that “South Texas is ready for true conservative leadership in office.”

The special election was held under previous district lines in which Pres. Joe Biden won by four points in the 2020 election. The November election will be held in the newly redrawn district where Biden would have won by over 15 points, according to the Texas Tribune.

If no candidate earned a majority of the vote in the general election, the top two finishers would have advanced to a runoff election. According to the proclamation announcing the special election, the runoff election would likely have been held in August.

Democrat concedes in the race for House seat in heavily Latino Texas district

Democrat Dan Sanchez's concession to Republican Mayra Flores in a special election for what had long been a Democratic-held House seat in Texas' Rio Grande Valley on Tuesday offered another glimpse at the GOP's gains among Latino voters and the enthusiasm gap confronting Democrats as the midterm elections approach.

CNN projected Flores the winner on Wednesday. She held off three other candidates in the low-turnout contest and topped 50% of the vote, allowing her to avoid a runoff.

The seat was vacated when former Democratic Rep. Filemon Vela resigned in March to join a law and lobbying firm. Vela's decision to bail early has proven costly for his party in the short term, as it will further narrow Democrats' majority in the House.

But it could also do longer-term damage to Democrats' standing in South Texas: Flores already is set to face off against Democratic Rep. Vicente Gonzalez, who currently represents a neighboring district, in the redrawn 34th District in November. The newly drawn district is more favorable to Democrats than the one Flores ran in for Tuesday's special election, but she would have the advantage of incumbency.

For Republicans, Flores' victory is another sign that the party is making inroads with Latino voters in the Rio Grande Valley. If the GOP can replicate that trend, even in part, in other states -- particularly Arizona and Nevada, two presidential battleground states with Democratic senators up for reelection this fall, and regions like Orange County, California, home to a host of competitive House races -- it would fundamentally shift the nation's political map.

Why was her victory notable?

Photo: rebelnews
Photo: rebelnews

In 2020, Republicans saw a rightward shift in the traditionally blue South Texas, where the vast majority of voters are Hispanic. Over the past two years, they invested heavily in the region — both in money and resources — and Flores’ victory is the fruit of their labor.

She is the first Republican elected to represent this area of the Rio Grande Valley in more than 150 years.

But that isn’t the only reason why Flores’ win was notable. Once sworn in, she will be the first congresswoman born in Mexico — a huge feat considering the first congressman born in Mexico was elected over a century ago.

“I will be the first Mexican American in Congress and the Republican Party in 2022,” Flores said in a March interview. “That says a lot. ... There hasn't been a woman elected in the Republican Party that is a Mexican American. So if we want to get more Hispanics to vote Republican, we do need that representation and not just on one party.”

Mayra Flores Net Worth & Salary

As a respiratory care practitioner working since 2014, Mayra Flores earned $72400 in annual salary. Now, after winning the election, she has become a member of the United States House of Representatives, and her salary is about to go up by a notch or two. In 2022, the average salary of a member of the United States House of Representatives is $174,000. Thus, Mayra will be entitled to the same salary figure as soon as she assumes office.

Mayra Flores Interesting Facts

  • Mayra Flores worked in the Hidalgo County Republican Party as chair of Hispanic Outreach.
  • She was raised with conservative values.
  • Mayra’s parents support the Democratic Party.
  • Due to her anti-abortion views, she joined the Republicans.
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