GOP zeros in on South Texas Dem who urged Trump to 'allow people to cross freely'
FIRST ON FOX: A Democratic congressman representing a South Texas district that Donald Trump carried by double digits is emerging as a top Republican target, with the GOP arguing Rep....
By Fox News · Fox News
FIRST ON FOX: A Democratic congressman representing a South Texas district that Donald Trump carried by double digits is emerging as a top Republican target, with the GOP arguing Rep. Vicente Gonzalez’s shifting border record has left him politically exposed at home. Though traditionally a Democratic stronghold, heavily Hispanic South Texas has trended sharply Republican in recent election cycles. Gonzalez narrowly won his 2023 election over former Rep. Mayra Flores by less than three percentage points. Additionally, the Texas redistricting push last year made Gonzalez’s district seven points more Republican. The race is widely considered a toss-up leaning Republican — one of the few pickup opportunities for the GOP in an unfavorable political climate. Republican National Committee spokesperson Zach Kraft told Fox News Digital that Gonzalez’s record on border security and former President Joe Biden has come back to bite him, leaving him "like a fish out of water" in his district. Gonzalez, however, dismissed these criticisms as Republicans "grasping at straws." He emphasized that "If you look at my record, you’ll see I was one of the toughest Democrats in the country on President Biden’s approach to our southern border, and I continue working to fix our broken immigration system, support CBP and Border Patrol, and rid our streets of criminals." HOUSE CANDIDATE PREDICTS HISTORIC RISE OF ‘NEW GENERATION’ IN CONGRESS AS PARTIES TARGET KEY DEMOGRAPHIC Under the redrawn Texas congressional map, Gonzalez’s district in the Rio Grande Valley is one that President Donald Trump won by 10 points in 2024, according to the Texas Tribune. Highly optimistic about the GOP’s chances, Kraft said that South Texans "do not want to go back to the Biden days where cartels controlled the border and endangered the lives of farmers, families, and Border Patrol agents." Gonzalez opposed construction of a border wall in 2019, calling it a "4th-century solution to a 21st-century problem," acc…