Mayra Flores is the subject of racist attacks by the blogger linked to Vicente Gonzalez

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A blogger who received campaign funds from U.S. Representative Vicente Gonzalez, D-McAllen, has launched racist attacks on Republican Representative Mayra Flores, the first Mexican-born woman to be elected to Congress and Gonzalez’s opponent in the race for Texas’ 34th congressional district. .

Texas political blogger Jerry McHale called the congresswoman “Miss Frijoles” and “Miss Enchiladas.” He accused her of “playing the race card” and called her a “lying cotton picker” for her claims that she worked in the cotton fields with his immigrant parents as a child.

Gonzalez’s campaign gave the McHale report $1,200 on June 24 for “advertising services,” according to the Federal Election Commission, as well as $1,000 on Oct. 27 of last year.

Gonzalez told the Tribune that he had never read the blog and was unaware of McHale’s racist comment. He has pledged to stop giving campaign money to the blog.

“As soon as I found out, we ended all of this,” he said.

BNC News first reported campaign contributions. Gonzalez’s campaign manager, Collin Steele, told NBC News that the campaign had not paid for McHale to roll out these attacks, texting the network: “Of course the congressman is against naming Rep. Flores as “Miss Frijoles” or a “Cotton – picking a liar.”

In a statement to the Texas Tribune, Flores said she was “disgusted that Vicente Gonzalez hired a creepy blogger to attack my Mexican heritage and sexually degrade me, but I won’t let that distract me from my work.”

“Vicente Gonzalez is an example of everything that is wrong with Washington. He has no case to rely on,” she said.

McHale also appears to have received publicity disbursements from the campaigns of former U.S. Representatives Filemon Vela and Solomon Ortiz dating back to 2004. Vela’s campaign, which resigned from office earlier this year, gave McHale $500 for publicity in March 2020.

It’s the second time since Flores was elected in her June 14 special election that Gonzalez has taken aim at comments made about her opponent. González says Newsweek last month that the freshman in Congress was an ‘unqualified’ Republican Party ‘pawn’ and distanced himself from Flores, saying, ‘I was not born in Mexico, I was born in South Texas, son of a Korean War veteran. ”

McHale defended his rhetoric in a Monday blog post in which he wrote that Flores “obviously has no concept of satire, especially in the political arena,” adding “when did frijoles become the equivalent of the word ‘NOT’?”

Flores highlighted the Twitter posts, drawing comparisons to first lady Jill Biden’s comments in San Antonio last week, where she said the city’s Latino community was “unique like breakfast tacos “. The first lady then apologized for the comment. Several Republican allies drew a similar comparison, with U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, Tweeter “#WeAreNotTacos” Tuesday in support.

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