Democratic Rep. Vicente Gonzalez’s campaign paid a Texas blogger $1,200 to attack his Republican opponent, Rep. Mayra Flores with derogatory racial terms, which was followed by denunciations from fellow Democrats. 

Gonzalez and Flores are facing off in the U.S. House race for Texas’ 34th Congressional district in the Hispanic-heavy south of the state.

According to the Democrat’s Federal Election Commission finance report, the initial language came three days after Gonzalez’s campaign wrote a $1,200 check on June 24 to The McHale Report blog for “advertising services.” In the time since, the blog has called Flores “Miss Frijoles” 21 times. Gonzalez and his campaign along with the blogger Jerry McHale have denied such an accusation. 

According to NBC News, they were told by both Gonzalez and McHale that the posts were coincidental and neither Gonzalez or his campaign had paid McHale for the attacking posts. They went so far as to deny Gonzalez had any idea about the posts or had any control over them. McHale did not back down from his stance however, telling NBC News, “I am a liberal Democrat. And it’s war against the Republican... I’m going to be merciless with her.” 

There have been multiple times Gonzalez has verbally gone after Flores, going back to a week after her special election victory. 

He told Newsweek that Flores was “unqualified” and a “pawn” of the Republican party, ending his comments with: “I wasn’t born in Mexico, I was born in South Texas, the son of a Korean war veteran.” 

Collin Steele, Gonzalez’s campaign manager, also sent a text to NBC News: “Of course, the congressman is against referring to Rep. Flores as ‘Miss Frijoles’ or a ‘cotton-picking liar.’” 

In response to the attacks, Flores posted a tweet: “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.”

The two are in a Latino-heavy congressional race in Texas at the moment, and this kind of scandal from Democrats could further explanation for why so many Latinos are joining the GOP in record numbers, with many being Pro-Trump and converting into Republican’s themselves. 

This is also not the first time McHale has been paid by candidates to denounce opponents in his blog. Fox News uncovered more posts from the blog, where Gonzalez paid McHale for the first time last year to attack Flores. These posts were derogatory and sexual in nature, referring to her body.

According to the Texas Tribune, McHale also received payments for advertising from other campaigns before, going back to 2004 with the U.S. Reps. like Filemon Vela and Solomon Ortiz. 

The timing of this is unfortunate for Democrats as it also comes just days after First Lady Jill Biden went on to describe Latino’s as being as “unique” as breakfast tacos, as the left further buries itself ahead of an important election year.

Latino votes were arguably the savior of the Democratic Party in 2020, but with every bad comment or scandal it endures, the more Latinos will go to the right.