TIME TO TAKE BACK THE HOUSE OF REPS. FROM TRUMP: VOTE CHENTE!

By Juan Montoya
Various Sources

If there is a critical election on the local ballot this Tuesday, November 3, the race for U.S. House of  Representatives (D-34) encompassing Cameron, Kenedy, Kleberg, and Willacy counties, along with portions of Hidalgo County and Nueces County, is it.

All you have to do is watch local cable television for half and hour and you will be bombarded with political attack ads by the major political parties against the other party's candidates. The political operatives in Austin and Washington D.C. know what's at stake in this race: nothing less than the control of the House of Representatives, the controllers of the purse now held by Donald Trump's Republican Party.

And Trump's hold on the U.S. House of Representatives may depend on who wins this district. Think about it. A district where one of the poorest communities exists, and where the worlds richest man lives and who has contributed millions against Democrats may tilt the result. Heady stuff.

This was a district that was gerrymandered by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and the Texas Legislature at Trump's commanded to assure him of five more seats in the House. They rejected former candidate Mayra Flores, and replaced her with former federal prosecutor and Army National Guard infantry captain Eric Flores, who is considered a top recruit for the Republican Party. 

The newly redrawn Texas congressional map appeared to give him a clear shot at unseating longtime Democratic Rep. Vicente Gonzalez in a district that encompasses portions of the valley and supported Trump over Democrat Kamala Harris by 10 percentage points.

However, Flores is now entangled in a far tougher contest than expected. Trump's call to undertake an unusual redistricting push was meant to preserve their majority in the U.S. House, but the strategy is facing headwinds.

Despite redrawing boundary lines to favor their candidates, the party is struggling under voter dissatisfaction over the economy, tariffs, the president’s deportation agenda, and the conflict with Iran. 

But if you listen to the Republican PACs attack ads against "Chente" Gonzalez, you won't hear them speak out against the high gas, diesel, grocery prices, the abuse of his Hispanic community by ICE, and the disastrous effect of Trump's tariffs on low-income consumers. Instead, the ads are filled with sinister insinuations and outright lies about Gonzalez supporting federally-funded transgender conversions, sex-changes, and dark hints about pedophilia.

(Kind of reminds you of the Q-Anon conspiracy about Hillary Clinton and Democrats operating a pedophile ring out of a pizzeria in San Francisco fully knowing that Trump and Epstein had been involved with such a ring in Epstein's island. Another diversion.)

In other words, they won't address the bread-and-butter issues facing District 34 residents, but instead seek to paint Democrats like Gonzalez as wanton liberals intent on schools changing the sex of your child and letting men into girls' bathrooms. This is what Trump's MAGA supporters and media machine have come down to. If you can't offer solutions, scare the hell out of voters and hope the allegations stick.

Then, despite the fact that Trump, wife Melania, his sons, his daughter and his son-in-law Jared  Kushner have raked in BILLIONS since he has been president, they call Gonzalez a "millionaire" and say he is a "fraud" and not for "la gente." 

But perhaps more damaging to Flores than ignoring the issues affecting District 34 constituents is the fact that he – as a Texas National Guard captain – has stood silently by while Trump tramples on the benefits and honor of real military veterans, including those who have served and fallen in combat, some of them Hispanics.

After a ceremony in 2018 where Captain Luis Avila — a severely wounded Army officer originally from neighboring Louisiana — sang “God Bless America," Trump took the perfunctory photo-op with the wheelchair-bound veteran, and then privately told then-Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley, “Why do you bring people like that here? No one wants to see that, the wounded.”

Flores remained silent and said nothing.

In September 2020 the Atlantic journalist Jeffrey Goldberg published an article citing sources who claimed that Trump referred to the American war dead at the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery near Paris as "losers" and "suckers." And Flores – who claims he was a military leader in his campaign literature – said nothing.

On July 17, an air base in Jordan came under attack by an Iranian missile and killed four soldiers at the base. One soldier, Isabella Gonzales, was killed as were Staff Sgt. Angel Rampersad, 28, of Queens, Tyler Feehan, and Michael Swinton.

Chavelita Gonzales grew up in Carrollton, Texas, near Ft. Worth. She graduated from Hebron High School in the spring of 2025 and enlisted in the Army soon after. She finished basic training in December, joined an air defense unit in Germany, and shipped out to an air base in Jordan.

After the strike, Trump posted in his Truth Social: "Every time Iran kills an American Soldier they will pay for that killing many times over!"

Within a week, Peter Hegseth's Pentagon pulled all four of them off the Iran war's official list of the dead and filed them under a separate heading, "Overseas Operations." A spokesman blamed a "temporary data disruption." Then the story changed. The government now says they died during a ceasefire. 

In other words, according to Trump and Hegseth, the soldiers' death – including our own Chavelita – didn't count, effectively denying the soldiers' families military death benefits.

And Flores? Again, the Rubber Stamp said nothing.

And when the Trump Administration continues to deny and cut veterans' health benefits for those who served from South Texas, who will stand up to him and say "No!?" Not Flores, you can rest assured.

The same happened when Trump kicked 600,000 South Texans off their health insurance in Budget FY 2020. 

And he says nothing of the MAGA republicans plans to gut Social Security and Medicaid which will hurt the low-income residents of D-34 disproportionately. If Flores is elected, we will have a congressman who will be nothing more than a  rubber stamp for Trump and the MAGA agenda.

Voting for Rubber Stamp Eric is the same thing as voting for the Trump agenda for two more years.  Hell no! Vote for Vicente Gonzalez.