Pete Mendoza
Fernanda Gonzalez | Vaquero Radio
With the primaries over, candidates for District 34 U.S. representative continue to prepare and share their ideas for the Nov. 5 general election.
Incumbent Democrat Vicente Gonzalez was unopposed in his party’s primary election on March 5.
After the primary election, he is focusing his campaign on the fundamentals of improving South Texas in terms of health care, education, unemployment, growth and border policies.
Gonzalez takes issue with recent statements by former U.S. President Donald Trump regarding immigrants and the border.
Trump said immigrants are “poisoning the blood of our country” during a campaign speech Dec. 16. In March, he said Mexican immigrants that commit crimes are “not people” during a rally in Ohio.
Gonzalez said he took offense to the comments considering he is a Mexican American himself. He was quoted in published reports saying, “when you see Latinos for Trump, to me it’s like seeing Jews for Hitler.”
He told Vaquero Radio his remarks are not intended to undermine the struggles of Jews but that there is a similarity between the two.
Gonzalez has received some backlash from Republicans, such as previous U.S. District 34 Rep. and challenger Mayra Flores.
She responded to Gonzalez’s comments on X.
Flores wrote “Shame on Vicente Gonzalez for referring to conservative Latinos in this manner. He forgets they are his constituents, too. We need to elect new leadership in November, and that’s exactly what the Rio Grande Valley will do” in a post on X.
Vaquero Radio reached out to Mayra Flores for comment but received no response as of this airing.
This is Pete Mendoza for Vaquero.
