Evening Edition: Hispanic Voters Want Stricter Border Security
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I'm Janice Dean. I'm Jason Chaffetz. I'm Harris Faulkner. And this is the Fox News Rundown. ♪

Wednesday, July 2nd, 2025. I'm Eben Brown. South Texas is once again a congressional battleground as Republicans make more inroads with Hispanic voters in key districts. At the end of the day, if we do not continue investing in the Hispanic community, there is no future for the Republican Party here in Texas. Hispanics are the majority. This is the Fox News Rundown Evening Edition.

Hey, I'm Trey Gowdy, host of the Trey Gowdy Podcast. I hope you will join me every Tuesday and Thursday as we navigate life together and hopefully find ourselves a little bit better on the other side. Listen and follow now at foxnewspodcast.com.

The borderland of South Texas continues to be a political minefield as issues with border security and drug cartel violence still plague the citizens who live along the Rio Grande and the international line with Mexico. Those Texans, those Americans, are perhaps the most affected by U.S. border policy when it's more lenient and when it's more strict.

And more often, they vote for politicians who want strict border controls. Those strict controls lead to very tangible results of personal safety. And in the years since President Trump first made border matters a key policy issue, more often those voters in border districts started voting Republican, whereas they traditionally did not.

It began with a special election in 2022. We won a special election, you're right, a historic election. I became the first Mexican-born congresswoman ever elected in history, and this was a Biden district. Former Congresswoman Mayra Flores had the chance to represent a South Texas district in Congress. She hopes to do so again as she's running in next year's midterms.

They made it four times harder for us to win our reelection due to redistricting. They created a new district in a way that favored Democrats more significantly. But I didn't give up. We've been putting so much work here in South Texas. We lost our reelection.

by two points. And this is a Biden 15 district in 2020. This was a Hillary 36 back in 2016. So we've been putting a lot of work in South Texas because I believe in this area, it's worth investing. And I

And at the end of the day, if we do not continue investing in the Hispanic community, there is no future for the Republican Party here in Texas. Hispanics are the majority.

The good thing is that our values align with the Republican Party. We're people of faith, family and hard work. It's our values that I believe that are going to save this country. Nothing has really changed in South Texas. We've always been conservative. What's changed is the investment.

You know, prior to my special election, there had not been no investments in South Texas from our party. And we were taken for granted by the Democrat Party. So I'm very glad to see the investments being made in South Texas. And I will continue to put in a lot of work because this area is worth investing in. And it's my home.

I think all too often a broad brush gets painted or gets painted with here. And they think that these the issues that pertain to Hispanic voters in South Texas and also some other places has to do with immigration issues.

There's more to it than that, though. But there's more to it than that. Right. I mean, there are other things. Absolutely. And we support immigration. I mean, I immigrated to this country, but legal immigration. There's a huge difference from legal immigration in illegal immigration. When you come to this country illegally, not only do you put your life at risk, your children's life at risk, but you're also paying the cartel a

a terrorist organization that has the people of Mexico terrorized. I mean, I've lived it personally. My dad was brutally beaten. If it wasn't because he was an American, they would have killed him. He told them, I'm an American. And he was let go. If he would have been...

Mexican, they are more likely they would have killed him. You know, they kidnapped my uncle, my aunt, and they were able to escape just a few days ago in the state of Tamaulipas. I had a family member that was kidnapped. From the cartels.

Card table, $20,000, by the way, $20,000 for her to be released and just was recently released. Of course, I'm not going to be giving her name. Of course, yes. No, please. Or any other information to protect my family. But this is in the state of Tamaulipas. I mean, just a few days ago, four decapitated bodies were hanging in Juliacan, Sinaloa.

And 16 bodies were found in a van. And so Mexico is going through the bloodiest times. If I can interrupt for just a second, a lot of Americans may not know too much about Mexican geography. Tamaulipas is not southern Mexico far away from the United States at all. It's it is a border state on the Texas side. Yes. I mean, yeah, it's right across from McAllen, if I remember right. And absolutely. It's right across. I was born in Burgos, Tamaulipas.

It's a red zone. It's very dangerous. They've actually put an alert not to come to the state of Tamaulipas. There's a lot of kidnapping. Right now, the cartel is desperate. They're not making the billions of dollars that were making under the Biden administration. So they're trying to find a way to make that money that they are not making right now. And so I would never support illegal immigration because that's exactly what they're funding, a terrorist organization. And so I think Americans need to wake up.

This is a terrorist organization right across our border. It's not the ocean. It's not in the Middle East. It's right here, right next to us. And if we do not do something about this right now, eventually it's going to come here. And by the way, it's

It's already here. Most of their families actually live here. Most of the cartels families actually live here in South Texas. Their wives and children live here in South Texas to to protect them. So these people are here already. So we need to wake up and take this very serious. I don't think we should be asking Mexico's permission.

to destroy this terrorist organization. They should be joining us. But for some reason, the Mexican government is not protecting its its people in Mexico. And the Mexican people at the end of the day are paying the consequences. But eventually it's it's going to affect us as well. Have things in the southern border areas of Texas, have they gotten better in the past six, seven months with President Trump in office or back in office?

Because there is obviously a vastly different way of dealing with this problem from one administration to the next. So has has life gotten better? Because we know that in South Texas there it's been they've been terrorized.

Correct. So things have gotten significantly better. But because we live so close to the border, we are seeing firsthand the violence in the state of Tamaulipas. Many of us have families right across our border that we cannot visit because of

My grandparents, uncles and aunts live right across the border. So we are not able to visit our loved ones because of this violence that is terrorizing our border. Look, a lot of people don't understand our culture here, but, you know, the state, Reynosa, Matamoros, we're like family, right?

Right. We're crossing back and forth every single day. We have Americans that actually live right across the border and every day cross back and forth because of the cost of living. So a lot of people don't know this, but Americans actually live right across the border because of the cost of living. But that is changing because of the violence that is just just taking over, especially because, you know,

Partels are becoming desperate. They're not making the billions of dollars that they were making under the Biden administration. I mean, Biden destroyed the border. They allowed millions of people to come here illegally, millions of them with criminal backgrounds, terrorists that are already here. So because of the Biden administration, we need to be very alert, aware of our surroundings, because many of them,

are already here planning an attack. And at the end of the day, it doesn't matter what your political affiliation is, whether you're a Democrat or Republican, you are an American. And these people hate our way of living. We are speaking with Texas Republican former Congresswoman Mayra Flores, who is running again to represent her district in South Texas in Congress on the Fox News Rundown Evening Edition. Please like and subscribe. We'll have more straight ahead.

It is time to take the quiz. It's five questions in less than five minutes. We ask people on the streets of New York City to play along. Let's see how you do. Take the quiz every day at the quiz dot box. Then come back here to see how you did. Thank you for taking the quiz. Can you help in Congress with this effort? I know this has been a big issue for you. And again, it's an issue that most other congressional districts around the country are not addressing.

dealing with, at least not in the way that these districts are dealing with. I mean, we took on the

The catchphrase, I think, during the election that every state is a border state. But there is a there's a real significant need in southern Texas. So how can you if you were back in office, how can you help? Look, I hate identity politics, but the messenger does matter. You know, when I say and when I talk about the issues in Mexico, it's taken different.

You know that if someone else with a different background says the exact same thing. So I think it the messenger does matter. Hispanics do resonate with me. Of course, I'm a Mexican-American and proud to be an American and making sure that we keep this country strong. And number one, I love.

you know, owe this country so, so, so much that I want to give back. And that's why I got involved because I feel that I have an obligation. But my top priority is making sure that the border continues to be secure, but also that we actually start making real decisions and how to get rid of the cartel because I am scared.

that these people come here or already here in the United States and terrorize us in the same way that they are terrorizing Mexico. And we're not the exception. You know, a lot of times we think, oh, that will never happen in America. Yes, it will. If we do not get to work, if we do not get involved, we do not fight just the way that men and women fought for us before us.

and making sure that we had a safe country. Now we have an obligation to making sure that our children, grandchildren, and the second generation also has a safe country to grow in. So do not take this country for granted. I see so many Americans that were born, raised here, constantly disrespecting this country, hating this country, promoting socialism and communism. I mean, I wish I could just fly these people out.

to these countries and for them to live communism and socialism themselves. And I mean, I would do trade-offs. I would bring some freedom lovers any day and send these white liberals to Cuba, Venezuela. You know, I mean...

I mean, in all with these white liberals like you are born and raised in the greatest just places in the world. Send them to places that are lawless as you know, as we've seen in it. To me, it's always the white liberals. Like it just I mean, I'm stunned when I saw this senator going to El Salvador fighting to bring back a young member. I was like.

Of course, it had to be a white liberal. I mean, they are just delusional. If I could just fly these people to Cuba, I would do it.

I mean, in a heartbeat and do a trade off for some freedom lovers. I mean, look at look at Florida. It's a strong state because of the Cuban Cuban Americans. They understand what communism and socialism is about. So, you know, a lot of us who immigrate to this country actually love and respect this country a lot more than these white liberals for leftist.

So let's talk about the race now. The election obviously would be more than a year away. That doesn't mean we ever stop talking about elections that upcoming. It seems to be one continuous cycle these days. So tell us how how it's going. How is the process going? You know, obviously it involves elections.

fundraising and door knocking and and it's in a place where people i think people know you at in this area at this point but you still have to go through all the all the motions here yeah of course well you know in order for us to put in work we have to do the fundraising and that's uh you know something that a lot of people tell me you know money's not everything you're right

But in order for me to get the message across, I have to do commercials. I have to do mailers. I have to do door knocking. And that requires funding. So anything that you can donate a dollar, five dollars to our campaign, www.my.floresforcongress.com, I would really appreciate it. If you live in the district, you can do door knocking. You can do phone banking. If you live outside the district, you can help us with phone banking as well. Because at the end of the day, this isn't my race. It's our race.

But at least we all lose. And this is the most important election in 2026. In order for us to keep, you know, putting in the America first agenda, we have to keep the majority. And that's why this this election is so important. How different is it this time around than some of your previous races in terms of the support? There's, you know, the Texas Republican Party. There's the National Congressional, the National Republican Congressional Committee.

Are they taking this race a bit more serious than this district was taken in the past? Absolutely. They've been taking South Texas very serious. And that is why we continue to see those trends. And we're getting closer and closer to a big win in overall South Texas than making sure that all South Texas is red. So the Republican Party, you know, has and the leadership has always ever since the special election, they've been taking South Texas very seriously.

Congresswoman Myra Flores running for office yet again. Thank you so much for being with us on the Fox News Rundown Evening Edition. Thank you. God bless you.

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