KEEP YOUR FRIENDS CLOSE, AND YOUR ENEMIES CLOSER: COUNTY COMMISSIONERS APPROVE RENTING FLORES OFFICE

Special to El Rrun-Rrun

Oblivious to the fact that newly-elected Republican District 34 congresswoman Mayra Flores voted against the historical bipartisan gun-safety bill on one of her first votes after taking over the unexpired term of Filemon Vela, a unanimous Cameron County Commissioners Court approved renting her office space in the San Benito county annex.

Flores, a rabid pro-gun advocate who was present during the meeting – told Treviño, who was in virtual presence and the commissioners – that she had not voted for the gun-safety bill because she said it would only provide $3,000 per school and that she had voted against it to bring "billions" to her district instead.

"I want to bring billions of dollars to our schools and that is one of my top priorities," she told the court. "Without our children we are nothing."

Just before she was allowed to have her item pulled out of order and approved, Treviño had praised the work of Republican Texas senior senator John Cornyn and the Republican and Democratic senators on the committee who had forged the legislation for heading the bipartisan effort to pass the gun-safety bill. 

"I am in Washington not representing any political party, but to represent the residents of our district," she pontificated, neglecting to say that she had once texted supporters calling Democrats "traitors" and President  Joe Biden a "criminal."

She then went on to tell commissioners that she had been appointed to the Homeland Security and agricultural subcommittees pointing out that she considered border security a top priority and that "I worked in the cotton fields when I was 13."

As has been pointed out in some social media, cotton harvesting has been done mechanically since the early 1970s, and Flores graduated from San Benito High School in 2004, some 50 years after the the total mechanization of the cotton industry. If she was 18 in 2004, that would have made her 13 in 1999, when all cotton harvesting had been done mechanically for more than 30 years.

So far, no one has called her out on that whopper.

And she told commissioners – perhaps it was wishful thinking – that she intends to represent the area for many years, even though the special election where she beat former county commissioner Dan Sanchez ends with the termination of the unexpired term of former congressman Filemon Vela in December 31, 2022. She faces congressman Vicente Gonzalez in the November general election for a full-year term.

“I saw that we have needs and not wants in Cameron County and my priority will be to bring the funding and the needs that we need here in Cameron County in the next few months and years to come, of course,” she said.

Although privately they doubt Flores can beat Gonzalez in the new Democratic-friendly district , Pct. 3 commissioner David Garza made the motion to rent her office space in the San Benito Annex and Pct. 2 commissioner Joey Lopez seconded the motion which was approved unanimously by the rest of the court.