(CNN) — Republican Mayra Flores will win the special election for Texas’s 34th Congressional District, CNN projects, giving Republicans an additional House seat.
Flores will be the best of four candidates, two Republicans and two Democrats in the all-party contest to succeed former Democratic Rep. Filemón Vela, who left his South Texas seat in March to join a Washington law and lobbying firm. . Flores will serve the remainder of Vela’s term, until January.
“This victory is for the people who were ignored for so long! This is a message that the ‘establishment’ will no longer be tolerated! We have officially started the red wave,” wrote the Flores campaign on Facebook On tuesday night. His main Democratic opponent, Dan Sánchez, dropped out of the race that same night.
Texas congressional candidate Mayra Flores is seen at the Republican National Committee headquarters in Washington on May 17, 2022.
Flores will be the first Mexican-born woman elected to Congress. She benefited from significant investment by national Republicans and relative indifference from Democrats, who are estimated to have spent more than 20 to 1.
Republicans focused on the race as part of an effort to project growing strength among moderate and conservative Hispanic voters in South Texas.
The Republican National Congressional Committee called Flores’ victory Wednesday a “model of success in South Texas,” according to a memo obtained by CNN.
But Flores’ time on Capitol Hill could be brief: In November, he will run for a full term against Democratic Rep. Vicente González, who is running from the 15th Congressional District. The redrawn 34th district is considerably friendlier to Democrats, although now President Joe Biden won the seat under its current lines by 4 points in 2020, he would have won the new version by about 16 points.
“A Democrat will represent Texas’ 34th district in January. If Republicans spend money on a seat that’s out of their league in November, great,” Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee spokeswoman Monica Robinson told CNN before the special election. The committee entered the race late, spending $100,000 on digital ads earlier this month.
The lack of support for Sanchez frustrated Gonzalez, who weeks ago told Politico that “it would be a tragedy” if the seat turned red for any length of time. In a statement Tuesday, he welcomed the late interest in the race but demanded more.
“I’m glad to see Democrats rally around this election,” he told CNN, “but South Texas needs sustained investment from the party.”
Sanchez, in a statement acknowledging the contest hours later, was less diplomatic. He expressed confidence that Gonzalez would win in November and denounced “out-of-state interests” for financially backing Flores, but also drew the attention of his own party.
“There were too many factors stacked against us,” the former Cameron County Commissioner said, “including little or no support from the National Democratic Party and the Congressional Democratic Campaign Committee.”
Republicans and allied outside groups made more significant compromises with Flores, using the campaign to give him an edge in the fall and, beyond the district’s shifting boundaries, to help bolster their broader attacks on Democrats nationally.
“This election was a referendum on reckless Democrat policies that created a border crisis, led to record inflation and skyrocketing gas prices,” National Republican Congressional Committee Chairman Tom Emmer said in a statement after Flowers victory.
— CNN’s Melanie Zanona contributed to this report.