The daughter of migrant workers, Republican Mayra Flores flipped a Democratic seat Tuesday in winning a special election in Texas’ 34th District, though the seat may flip back in November.
Flores defeated Democrat Dan Sanchez and two other candidates in the special election to fill the remainder of Democratic Rep. Filemon Vela’s term, which runs through January. She had 51 percent to Sanchez’s 43 percent when The Associated Press called the race at 10:13 p.m. Central with an estimated 99 percent of the vote counted.
Born in Burgos, a city in Tamaulipas, Mexico, Flores came to the United States around the age of 6 with her parents. She remembers them putting in hours at a peanut factory and in cotton fields.
