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THE PROGRESSIVE-LEANING American press has been up in arms that several South Texas Hispanic politicians have a significant impact nationally for promoting and defending conservative values. The latest mainstream media attack came from CNN columnist Raul A. Reyes, who was subsequently exposed on Twitter by Cassy Garcia — running for the Republican Party in an evenly matched race for the 28th district in Texas.
In his CNN op-ed, Reyes argued that the GOP’s new Latino frontrunners do not genuinely represent the Hispanic community and that their political stardom will be short-lived.
“While these Latinas may be having a moment in the spotlight, they hold views outside the Latino mainstream. Their current prominence is more of a publicity coup for the GOP than an authentic reflection of Latino voters. Like most other Republicans, these Latinas hold conservative positions on abortion, gun control, and immigration,” Reyes writes, arguing that most Latinos have progressive views on the latter three issues.
In his article, Reyes, like The New York Times days earlier, accused Cassy Garcia, Monica De La Cruz, and Mayra Flores of extremists and supporters of former President Donald Trump. These news outlets accused them of attempting to sell the “God, country and family” platform of these three Hispanic politicians as a “far-right” movement within the Republican Party.
Following CNN’s attack, Cassy Garcia did not sit idly by and exposed the news network on her Twitter account by posting a collage with photos of articles where CNN highlighted socialist politicians like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and the leadership of ‘Latinx’ — a controversial and unpopular term among Hispanics.
“When CNN attacks me as not a ‘real deal’ Latina, what they’re trying to say is that I’m neither a socialist nor a Latinx. That’s true. I’m a proud Texan.”
Cassy Garcia against the ‘liberal’ mainstream media
This is not the first time that the Republican candidate has responded to a direct attack from a progressive national media outlet.
The New York Times national political reporter Jennifer Medina had accused Flores, De La Cruz, and Garcia in a report of representing a sort of Republican Latino “far-right” in South Texas.
In an interview with Fox News host Tucker Carlson, Garcia harshly responded to the Times and the liberal press that has attacked these policies for upholding conservative values.
“It’s just absolutely ridiculous, the fact that the liberal media would call me a far-right Latina because I grew up in a conservative household on the border, and I went to church — it’s just absolutely ridiculous. Yet they praise AOC and the Squad,” Garcia told Tucker. “Let me tell you, they don’t represent our values in south Texas, and the reason I am running for Congress is to defend faith, family, and freedom.”
“I’m representing the families and the communities of District 28. They don’t speak for me or the New York Times. The Democratic Party has left the Hispanic community, and we care about a strong and secure border. We don’t want open borders at all, and that’s what the Democratic Party believes in, and we don’t believe in that,” García added. “We believe in sovereign borders, so that’s why we are going to see more Democrats vote Republican come November. We’re going to see more Democrats walk away.”
Cassy Garcia will face Democratic Rep. Henry Cuellar, who won the Democratic primary by just a handful of votes over challenger Jessica Cisneros, touted in the media as the progressive alternative to Cuellar in this year’s midterms.
Emmanuel Alejandro Rondón is a journalist at El American specializing in the areas of American politics and media analysis // Emmanuel Alejandro Rondón es periodista de El American especializado en las áreas de política americana y análisis de medios de comunicación.
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