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Republican Mayra Flores is looking to flip a South Texas House seat next week after a flood of GOP TV ads flooding the district.
Texas' 34th District is vacant because of the resignation of Rep. Filemon Vela, and the special election to fill the seat for the remainder of the term will be held on Tuesday.
The leading candidate is currently Flores, a Republican who's touted her husband's job as a border patrol agent on the airwaves. Her leading Democratic opponent is Dan Sanchez, who trails Flores in fundraising and has aired few ads.
Flores has also been aided massively by outside Republican spending from groups trying to flip seats in South Texas, a traditionally reliably Democratic area.
The Congressional Leadership Fund has spent $130,000 just this month on ads boosting Flores. Flores herself has spent $81,000 on the airwaves in the last ten days, while Sanchez has spent nothing.
Finally this week, he received outside aid from the House Majority PAC, Congressional Democrats' campaign arm. They spent $112,000 on the airwaves to air a Spanish-language ad attacking Flores and tying her to Republican "violence and terror," like the Jan. 6, 2021 riot at the Capitol.
If it's not enough to convince voters to vote for Sanchez, though, Democrats could lose a House seat, narrowing their already slim majority and potentially setting themselves up for more losses in November.
