The Daily - The Rise of the Conservative Latina

Episode Date: July 29, 2022

For decades, Republicans have sought to make gains with a critical voting block: Latinos.Last month, when Mayra Flores was elected to Congress from Texas, she finally showed them a way to gain that support. Today, we explore what her campaign tells us about the future of the Latino vote.Guest: Jennifer Medina, a national reporter for The New York Times.Want more from The Daily? For one big idea on the news each week from our team, subscribe to our newsletter. Background reading: Ms. Flores has leaned into her personal story to persuade voters with conservative values that it’s time to give the Republicans a try.For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

From The New York Times, I'm Astead Herndon. This is The Daily. Today, for decades, Republicans have sought to make gains with a critical voting bloc, Latinos. Last month, when Mayra Flores was elected to Congress from Texas, she finally showed them a way how. I spoke to my colleague, Jenny Medina, about what her campaign tells us about the future of the Latino vote.

It's Friday, July 29th. Ginny, tell me about Mayra Flores. So Mayra Flores is a Republican who won in a special election in June. And her win was really a big surprise because her district in the Rio Grande Valley had been Democratic for many, many years, almost the entire last century. And she was able to flip this district in this special election in a way that nobody really expected, including her supporters. But she did. And she was sworn in in July and is now the Republicans' newest member of Congress. Well, thanks for making the time. I understand it's your first as a congresswoman. Yeah.

Your first interview as a congresswoman. And I went to her office in Washington for her first interview as an elected official. Do you have a vision for the office physically? Yes. I really wanted to hear from her sort of how she viewed her win. And I think a lot of that has to do with her own personal story, which she relied on a lot throughout the campaign.

Tell me just a little bit about where you were born, how you grew up and how you got into politics. Well, I was born in Burgos de Maripas, Mexico. Honestly, I had the best childhood. Mejico honestly had the best childhood. Mayra Flores came here with her parents when she was very young, about six years old, from Mexico, not far from the South Texas border where she lives now. And her family worked as migrant farm workers. Usually we would just travel up in the panhandle to Memphis, Okay. And that's where we worked in the cotton fields. And really saw her parents trying to, as she explains it,

trying to achieve the American dream. We did also do work in the onion fields in Georgia one summer, actually. She sort of thinks of herself as being politically interested, but not politically involved. And is raised throughout her life considering herself a Democrat. What made you become a Democrat in the first place? That's what I was told to do so. By who?

My father. Yeah, my family, everybody. That's what everybody around her is doing. That's what her parents do. She sort of has this understanding, you're Hispanic, you're a Democrat. Those two things go together. And do you remember what he said? Like what, how he, how he explained you should be a Democrat? Never, never. It was just like, this is who I'm voting for. And I was like, okay, then I'll vote for Asselo. But at some point that starts to shift. I got married at a very young age. I was about 20 years old when I got married.

In her telling, there's a few things that prompt the shift. My husband was a police officer first, and he later on became a Border Patrol agent. She marries a Border Patrol agent who is very focused on safety and immigration and has a sort of more conservative outlook on life. And along that journey, I've had four children, two boys and two girls. She starts to have children. She's paying close attention to how much things cost and the cost of living. And I just started questioning things. I mean, this is the place where she is from

that has really been controlled by Democrats for decades and decades. There had not really been any sort of political alternative. And at the same time, it's a place that has continued to struggle economically. As she explains it, she starts to think, what has this party that I keep voting for done for me? They really didn't do anything. They just felt that no matter what they did, that Hispanics were going to vote for them for the simple reason that

they had a D after their last name. That's not right. And she really starts to feel like she's not getting anything out of these promises that she's hearing politicians making. I told him we can't expect anything to change in South Texas if we continue to elect the same person over and over. And then as she's sort of going through this transition. Honestly, it was the Trump administration. Donald Trump comes to the national stage. Under his presidency, I just saw more Hispanics being more successful. And that's all I care about. and that's all I care about.

She's heard her husband, the Border Patrol agent, complain for a long time about lack of enforcement, about chaos, about fear that he has of migrants coming over the border. And she really views the border as this place in real disarray. Criminal organizations have full control of the southern border. That's a fact.

And so to have somebody saying sort of what she's had in the back of her mind, but not really said out loud, feels pretty amazing to her and sort of shocking. And she doesn't see the criticism of Mexicans as being about her at all. She sees it being about people she sees as a danger. So Trump's just saying what she thinks other politicians are unwilling to say. I don't want a sweet talker. I want someone that can actually get the job done. And then she gets pulled in even further.

A government shutdown happens around 2018, and she's invited to an event specifically for Border Patrol wives to sort of offer the Republican Party support together as a little bit of a community, which happens to be almost entirely all other Mexican-American women. But if I remember 2018 correctly, wasn't that a shutdown that was in part at least brought on by Republicans? There was a Republican president, of course, and Donald Trump. on by Republicans. There was a Republican president, of course, and Donald Trump. How does this event draw her closer to the same party that has in part inflicted the situation on her? I think that she really didn't see it that way at all. I think what was happening in Washington to her was this sort of confusing thing happening over there. And what was really more important and exciting to her, what was happening closer to home, which is that somebody is inviting her in, asking her what she thinks, showing that they care about her and people like her personally.

And she's walking into this room suddenly with many, many other women who are in similar situations to her. So she's saying that for the first time in her kind of local community, she felt politically seen and heard. And that was by Republicans. Absolutely. Politically seen and heard and interested in, like she wasn't being taken for granted. So what happens next? So that's sort of her entry point into this local organizing and local political party. She becomes involved with the county GOP. She starts to organize with them. She becomes the Hispanic outreach director.

She's recruited to more and more meetings, to more and more discussions. And by 2020, she's helping organize Trump trains in the region, these caravans of cars and trucks flying big Trump 2020 flags off the region, these caravans of cars and trucks flying big Trump 2020 flags off the back of their car. And again, all of this feeds into this excitement of like, we're part of something new, we're part of something interesting, and that feels really important. And at the same time this is happening, she, like many of her friends, is also quite involved in one of the local evangelical churches.

She goes to a fairly small church where the pastor simultaneously is becoming much more politically involved. He starts this thing called Make America Godly again and sort of ties his religious outreach with political outreach. And all these things, all these threads are sort of coming together for her in a way that is pointing to political involvement, political empowerment, and like just a lot of excitement and a feeling of purpose. So Trump loses, of course, in 2020, but wins more voters than anybody ever expected in the Rio Grande Valley. And a lot of that is attributed to

the work that Flores and people like her did. And so there's this real feeling of momentum going on. And so by early 2021, Flores has decided, look, I'm going to throw my hat in the ring and run for Congress in this district that's been held by a Democrat almost its entire existence. What do I have to lose? I'm going to give it a try. And then in 2022, in the spring, the congressman from the district retires early, and suddenly there's going to be this special election in June. And she decides to run in that election. What does she campaign on? Hi, everyone. I'm here at the Bronzeville Public Library. Come and vote. She really campaigns on her own personal story and this very

simple notion. Vote for God, family, and country. God, family, country. And those three words were sort of over everything she did. I am running to restore the American values of God, family, and country. They were over her campaign signs. They were in all of her speeches. Interesting. You know, God, family, country is something that means a lot, but can mean a lot to a lot of different people. What was she meaning by that slogan?

I mean, I think part of the reason that she drew so heavily on it is for that exact reason, that it can mean a lot of things to a lot of different people. I think for her, it's this notion of, I want to put God back at the forefront of American politics. I was born in Burgos, Tamaulipas, Mexico. Arriba, Burgos. Sí, señor.

Raised with strong values to always put God and family first. Hmm. Make America godly again. Make America godly again. I want to emphasize my sort of traditional family values. My father, Saúl Flores, moved us to the United States because of the promise of America.

He told me, in this country, if you work hard, you can accomplish anything. My story proves he is right. And country is really this idea of the American dream and this notion of like anybody can be anything they want if they just work hard enough. I have risen from working in the cotton fields to representing the community I love. It sounds like her own story is her platform by God, family, country. You know, all of those things relate back to that biography that you laid out. She's running on herself. Absolutely. She's running on herself. She's running on being a sort of model. I've achieved these things. You can too. And I think

too that she is trying to say, yes, I'm Republican, but she's much more focused on these values that are going to appeal to a huge number of people. People always ask me, Myra, how can you be a Republican whenever you were born in Mexico? And that clearly shows me that they know nothing about our culture. I was raised with strong conservative values. We're all about faith and family and hard work. That's who we are. So our values do really align with the Republican Party.

So really what she's saying is like these values are the values you hold already, and they actually happen to belong more to the Republican Party than those Democrats you've been voting for your whole life. That's the argument she's making. Yeah. I mean, like, I guess when the Republican is saying God, family, country, it seems like an attempt to make a sort of permission structure for the voter that you may not have voted for Republicans before. But for this one, the one who's talking about God, family and country values, you know, and share, you can make an exception. You can vote for this Republican. Absolutely. And there was a lot of belief and excitement around that.

I talked to lots of voters who really felt like this is somebody who we can be proud of. And eventually that momentum really starts to build. And the Republican Party dumps millions of dollars into the special election. And she suddenly has an infrastructure around her and support around her. And the special election comes and she wins. And that win really shocks Democrats and sends a lot of terror into their hearts. And at the same time, just completely excites Republicans like nothing else has really this year. We'll be right back.

So, Jenny, what happens to Flores once she wins her seat in this special election? So she becomes an instant star. The number of followers she has on social media explodes exponentially. She starts to get in donations. She starts to receive all this national attention. And she's really the Republicans' sort of wildest dreams. And all the Republican establishment in Washington welcomes her with huge open arms.

You know, the sign out front says historic because moments ago we watched a moment of history. Myra Flores was officially sworn in. The moment that she's sworn in, Kevin McCarthy has a press conference on the Capitol steps welcoming her. Nothing's greater than the American story. Nothing's greater than Myra Flores' story.

Where she's surrounded by all this Republican leadership and a sign that says historic. From California to Texas to New York, Americans are uniting behind Republicans like our newest member of Congress, Myra Flores. And they really frame her win as a real turning point. We are just a short few months away and only four seats from firing lame duck speaker Nancy Pelosi once and for all. And today, Congresswoman Myra Flores brought us one step and one seat closer.

I mean, that is the dream welcome for a freshman congressperson in Washington. freshman congressperson in Washington. There are some who spend years up in D.C. without a fancy press conference with the congressional leadership. That was happening on her first day with a banner that literally says historic. No, absolutely. And she really kind of capitalized that. And in the days after her win, as she's exponentially expanding her Twitter followers, The days after her win, as she's exponentially expanding her Twitter followers, she's portraying herself as sort of the Republican version of AOC. Basically says, I'm a better version of AOC. And really, like, is looked at as this youthful future for the party. She knows that she looks different than the rest of the Republican caucus. She knows that she has a different history than the rest of the Republican caucus.

She knows she's sort of an anomaly, and she's very happy about that. We've been talking about politics, but policy-wise, legislative-wise, actual votes-wise, what did she do in her first weeks in Washington? Oh, she was right in line with Republicans, with Republican leadership from the moment she got there. As a Mexican-born legal immigrant, Border Patrol wife, and a mother, I know firsthand how out of control our border crisis is. Her first speech on the House floor was about immigration enforcement and border enforcement. Our South Texas communities are hurting because of this crisis, and our people feel totally ignored by our government. Which is really one of her main policy messages.

Dangerous drugs are pouring across the border. That there needs to be stricter border enforcement. I came to this country legally. That immigrants need to do things the quote-unquote right way. That legal process is how it should be done. She falls right in line with Republican policies and talking points. I believe that securing our borders

shouldn't be political. It's the right thing to do. Thank you, and I yield back. But as you said, this was a special election that Flores won, and she has to run again in November, right? So is she going to win again? I'm sorry to put you in the prediction business. I'm definitely not in the prediction business, but she has a much, much tougher race in November without question. One important thing is that redistricting has made the district more

favorable to Democrats than it was during the special election. And she's also running against a congressional incumbent who's much more widely known than her opponent in the special election was. And she's going to have more voters taking a stance on who they want to see in Congress. So we have this kind of Flores moment where she's making this big splash in Washington, but it's not super clear how long it will last. Then tell me, how should we view this? Is this a flash in the pan or not? She may or may not be a flash in the pan, but even if she is,

she's this hugely important symbol for a shift that may be really lasting in the Republican Party. This question of can Republicans move beyond a white base and expand to really having Hispanic voters as part of their winning coalition. number of Hispanic Republicans running for Congress. And the Republican Party nationally is putting an enormous amount of effort into courting Hispanic voters and recruiting these kind of candidates. Tell me about some of those other candidates. Yeah, so she's actually one of three candidates in this very same region of the Rio Grande Valley, which is the southern tip of Texas, right along the Mexican border. When you love something, it's worth protecting. I'm Monica de la Cruz and I love America. Next to Forres' district in the McAllen district is Monica de la Cruz.

I'm Monica de la Cruz and I approve this message and together we'll finish what Trump started. Monica de la Cruz ran in 2020 and nearly unseated a Democratic incumbent and is now running again in a district that is effectively the most competitive district in Texas. They have spoken clearly that they want change and they want the Republican Party based on faith, family, and freedom.

And really seen as Republicans' best chance to flip any district in the state. And we will honor our law enforcement officers, our border patrol agents, and the hardworking families of Texas 15. And just a little further west in Laredo District. The reason why I am running for Congress is to defend faith, family and freedom. You have Cassie Garcia, who is running against Henry Cuellar, who is a moderate Democrat. District 28 has been in Democrat control for 110 years. And the current incumbent, Henry Cuellar, who says all the right things, has done absolutely nothing, nothing to secure a southern border.

In fact... Unlike De La Cruz and Flores, Garcia has been a lifelong Republican and had worked for Ted Cruz for many years and really thinks she can be the true conservative of the area. Republicans are energized, they're excited, there's a red wave, there's a movement happening. These are all sort of unapologetic, conservative Republicans who are very much cut from the

Trump cloth, running as anti-abortion, pro-wall, pro-border control, anti-gun control, sort of all the most traditional Republican points they are running. They are not portraying themselves as moderates. And they're even working together. They call themselves the triple threat. And they talk about being Democrats' worst nightmare. So what do these candidates, this specific group, tell us more broadly about the GOP strategy toward Latino voters. Well, there really are a few different things going on here. First of all, Republicans learned in 2020 with the inroads that Trump made that they don't have to step back from

anti-immigration rhetoric and don't necessarily risk losing all Latino voters. So they're trying this again with a different group of people who are more reliable or safer messengers. These women can't be attacked as being anti-Mexican since they themselves are Mexican-American. These women can't be attacked as being anti-immigrant since they themselves come from immigrant families. They can't be attacked as being sexist since they themselves are women. So it insulates Republicans from some of the criticisms that come from the left. And Republicans are also really trying to capitalize on these women as being a different kind of authentic version of being Latina in the United States. These are women who are really tied to families. These are women who are really pro-law enforcement. And they're saying that is just as much of a valid Latino experience or Latino point

of view as all these things that we're more accustomed to hearing from the left. It seems like both a defensive and an offensive thing, if we think strictly politically. Their identity and their story both insulates them from some criticisms that have been lodged at Republican candidates, but also their identity and story authentically speaks to a real experience among these populations. Their lives mirror the lives of their communities. Absolutely. At the same time, some of these women, Flores probably most in particular, have in fact faced some pretty sexist attacks from the left. One of the messages that all three of these women have come back to again and again is that nothing is more threatening to liberals than, quote unquote, minorities who think for themselves. That's a phrase that I've heard them use over and over.

How are those attempts to kind of flip the script landing with their voters? I mean, is it working? There's no doubt that it works with some segment of people. I've talked to many voters in all of these districts who really feel like Democrats don't get us. Democrats don't care about us. Democrats aren't listening to us. They're making these presumptions about us. There's a couple who I spent a great deal of time with in Flores' district who happen to be Catholic. I mean, many of her supporters are evangelical Christians. They happen to be Catholic. They voted for Democrats over and over again, as recently as Hillary Clinton in 2016, and really feel like they haven't left the Democratic Party, but more that the party has left them. They are older, they're in their 60s, they have grown

children, and they are something very inspiring to them by seeing this younger woman embody what they think of as being their family's values. And so they're eager to see what happens. their family's values. And so they're eager to see what happens. What I'm also hearing is that for these voters, it's the message, certainly. It's God, family, and country. But it's also the messenger, the fact that they find themselves drawn to a charismatic, young, and most importantly, relatable candidate that is taking God, family, and country and backing it up through a life experience that is familiar to them. It's message credibility. Absolutely. They see themselves in her. They see their children in her. They see their hopes in her. And they also really buy into her message.

And what this has really shown Republicans is that they don't have to sort of moderate their message to expand beyond their white base, that they can attract these Hispanic voters. When you look at Flores' record in the months that she's been in office, she's taken very hardline Republican votes. She's voted against gun control. She's voted against gay marriage. gun control. She's voted against gay marriage. She has not backed away from real conservative messages. What she has done is shifted the way that those messages look. So she's sort of taken a Trumpian message and put it into AOC clothing. At the same time, you said that there's still an open question about whether she wins past November. And this cohort, none of them seem kind of guaranteed victory. How should we think about this strategy? Is it a strategy to just

minimize losses for Republicans in these areas? Or is this really a winning strategy? Can Republicans win places like the Rio Grande Valley? I think there's no doubt that they can win. Whether they do win or not, I think, is an open question. I think it is a forward-looking strategy. Republicans seem to really have gotten the message and really understand that they cannot win with white voters alone, that this is a huge demographic, a fast-growing demographic within voters. And if they don't attract a more

diverse group of voters, they're in trouble. And this is a path forward for them to do so. It is these three women in Texas, but it is also candidates in New Mexico, it's candidates in Arizona, it's candidates in Virginia. This is not limited to this region alone. not limited to this region alone. I mean, that adds real stakes to this midterm election, not just in the broad sense, but in a very specific sense for a really important demographic group, which is growing in its numbers in the country. We're about to get real answers about how the parties assumed they had to talk to him and who they assumed these communities wanted is actually correct. We're going to get a real stress test. Absolutely. This is one of the biggest sort of most telling stress tests that we've had

in a long, long time that will show whether the Trump bump among Hispanics was a blip or whether it's something really lasting that we'll see in years and even decades to come. Whether the Trump bump was real and also that Democratic erosion, how deep that is. Yes. Yeah. And it really is the question of what's the future for these parties. Are these voters the new swing voters? Are these voters going to get the same attention that soccer moms have gotten for years? You know, this is really a battle for this demographic that has the potential to swing elections for many, many cycles to come. Thank you, Jenny. I appreciate your time.

Thank you, Jenny. I appreciate your time. Thank you. We'll be right back. Here's what else you should know today. On Thursday, the U.S. said a key measure of economic activity, gross domestic product, fell for the second straight quarter, raising fears that the country could be entering a recession. Most economists say that the current economic conditions do not meet the formal definition of a recession, but that the likelihood of one is rising. And...

On this vote, the yeas are 243, the nays are 187. One member voting present. The motion is adopted. The House of Representatives handed President Biden a major victory on Thursday by passing a $280 billion spending bill already adopted by the Senate. The bill would subsidize the domestic manufacturing of items like computer chips. The bill is designed to make the U.S. more competitive against rivals like China.

House Republican leaders had encouraged their members to vote against the bill as retribution for a deal reached by Democratic Senator Joe Manchin to spend hundreds of billions of dollars to fight climate change. But 24 Republicans defied their leadership and joined Democrats in backing the bill. Today's episode was produced by Nina Feldman, Rob Zipko, and Rachel Quester. It was edited by Patricia Willans. Contains original music by Alisha Ba'itoub, Marion Lozano, and Dan Powell. It was engineered by Chris Wood.

Our theme music is by Jim Brumberg and Ben Landsberg of Wonderly. That's it for The Daily. I'm Astead Herndon. See you on Monday.