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• #TEXAS REP FILEMON VELA TRIAL#

"And I think there's an opportunity for that. "The challenge for Republicans is to consolidate those gains and hold them in the next election," he said. More: How Vela might use his post under Biden to help struggling Texas Democrats And that helped boost down-ballot GOP candidates, even if they did not win, Mackowiack added.

Matt Mackowiak, a veteran Texas Republican political operative, noted that Trump ran surprisingly strong in several border counties as he carried Texas in 2020. "So Republicans will be looking to strengthen their position in the Valley to see if they can capture (one or more) congressional seats." "The Republican Party has clearly targeted the Rio Grande Valley following this last election," Barrow said. His victory margins had grown smaller with each election, and so had those of his fellow Democrats in neighboring congressional districts anchored along the Rio Grande.Īnd when Vela issued his surprise announcement Monday that he will not run again in 2022, both Republicans and some neutral observers saw it as recognition that the Democrats' solid lock on South Texas could be loosening.Ĭlyde Barrow, chairman of the political science department at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, said it's no secret that Republicans have begun paying increased attention to the South Texas in recent cycles. House representing a district from stretching from his hometown of Brownsville to Austin and was looking ahead to his volunteer role as a new vice chairman of the Democratic National Committee.īut there was more than a little truth to Vela's off-the-cuff comment about his own political vulnerability. Less than three weeks earlier, he was sworn to his fifth term in the U.S.

#TEXAS REP FILEMON VELA TRIAL#

But most will probably struggle to match Gonzalez’s war chest.Ī trial lawyer by trade, Gonzalez also the ability to self-fund."I might have got beat," Vela said with a chuckle during an interview Jan. The most prominent one is Rochelle Garza, a civil rights attorney from Brownsville. He could still face carpetbagging attacks because his hometown of McAllen is in his old district, and he is also more moderate and a member of the Blue Dog Coalition.įour Democrats have filed to run for the seat. Gonzalez said he is considering running in Vela’s seat because the incumbent is retiring and because Vela absorbed some of his Democratic voters from Hidalgo County.īut Gonzalez would not face an empty Democratic primary field. In a statement to POLITICO, Vela said: “I will endorse Congressman Gonzalez no matter which district he runs in.” Republicans’ map would turn the Brownsville-based seat held by Vela, who announced his retirement earlier this year, into one that backed Biden by nearly 16 points in 2020. Henry Cuellar, a seat that Biden would have carried by 7 points. Thus far, the state Legislature has acted somewhat conservatively, proposing turning Gonzalez’s district into a battleground and giving his neighbor to the west, Democratic Rep. That made all three a target for GOP mapmakers in redistricting. That candidate, Monica De La Cruz-Hernandez, is running again this cycle.Īll three districts in the Rio Grande Valley saw a similar rightward shift in 2020 - something the incumbents attributed both to Trump’s surge among Latino men and some progressive Democratic policy proposals and slogans that did not play well along the border. Meanwhile, Gonzalez saw his victory margin shrink to 3 points in 2020 against a opponent who spent less than $300,000. Hillary Clinton won the seat by 17 points in 2016 but Joe Biden won it by just 2 points four years later. His current district, which includes McAllen and stretches north toward San Antonio, took a hard swing to the right last year. He also said if he changed districts he would “make certain that we have another candidate” that could keep his 15th District in Democratic hands.Įven before the GOP-controlled redistricting began, Gonzalez was likely to have a tough reelection. Gonzalez, who was first elected in 2016, said that he has over $2 million in his campaign account to use in a primary for the Vela’s seat. House Republicans, who have identified Gonzalez’s current McAllen-based district as their top pickup opportunity in Texas, will welcome the news that Democrats are losing the power of incumbency in a tough battleground. If in fact these are the final maps I will very seriously consider running in 34 and continuing my representation of South Texas and the Rio Grande Valley.” “I have received many calls from across South Texas encouraging me to run in this district. “If the Texas congressional maps that have been proposed are adopted, a large portion of my constituency will be in District 34,” Gonzalez said in a statement provided first to POLITICO.