Democratic Rep. Vicente Gonzalez has been accused of racism after he paid a Texas blogger who wrote posts calling his Republican opponent, Rep Mayra Flores, “Miss Frijoles” and a “cotton-pickin’ liar”.
The racist narrative against the Hispanic congresswoman was written on The McHale Report blog on June 24, just 3 days after Gonzalez paid the blog $1200 for “advertising services”. The blog has referred to Flores as “Miss Frijoles”, the Spanish word for beans, over 21 times since the initial post and has never run any actual ads for the Gonzalez campaign.
Despite the clearly racist nature of the attacks against the newly elected Congresswoman, who is also the first ever Mexican-born woman to serve in the United State House of Representatives, said she was proud of her upbringing, including eating frijoles growing up.
Her tweet read, “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“
Despite the clear connection between Gonzalez’s campaign and the racist attacks, his campaign manager attempted to distance themselves from the posts once their nature became public knowledge.
“Of course, the congressman is against referring to Rep. Flores as ‘Miss Frijoles’ or a ‘cotton-picking liar’,” Gonzalez’s campaign manager, Collin Steele, wrote in a text to NBC News.
Even after the statement from the Gonzalez campaign, the blogger McHale pledged not to back down in his attacks on Congresswoman Flores, telling NBC News, “I am a liberal Democrat. And it’s war against the Republican … I’m going to be merciless with her.”
Mayra Flores made history this year when she won the Hispanic majority, historically Democrat southern Texas district in a special election, defeating former Rep. Gonzalez for the newly redistricted seat. Do you think Democrats will get away with pushing this kind of racist, anti-Hispanic rhetoric or will voters notice and it will backfire on them come election day?
