The QAnon Caucus in Congress Just Got Bigger

The QAnon caucus in the U.S. House of Representatives just got a little bit more crowded.

Joining Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene and Colorado Rep. Lauren Boebert is a new member of Congress who has publicly shown support for or boosted the wild conspiracy theory: Mayra Flores, who on Tuesday night flipped a Democratic seat in Texas’ 34th District.

Like Boebert and Greene before her, Flores has attempted to walk back her support for QAnon as her political profile has grown and her record has faced more scrutiny.

“I’ve always been against any of that. I’ve never been supportive of it,”  Flores told the San Antonio Express-News in April. 

But that doesn’t really match up with reality. As documented by media watchdog Media Matters, Flores has repeatedly posted the #QAnon and #Q hashtags on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. She even ran a Facebook ad that included three separate QAnon-linked hashtags.

Flores is also a major supporter of former President Donald Trump and secured his endorsement in Tuesday’s special election. The former president congratulated Flores in a post on his own Truth Social platform on Tuesday night.

She also managed to secure the support of Tesla and SpaceX founder, Elon Musk, who revealed Flores was the first Republican he had ever voted for.

Besides being the third QAnon congresswoman, Flores, whose husband is a Border Patrol agent, is also the nation’s first Mexican-born congresswoman. She moved to Texas when she was 6.

Her victory in a district where 85 percent of residents are Latino is the latest sign of Republican gains among Latino voters. 

Flores’ win also means the GOP has flipped what was a Democratic seat, which was vacated following the resignation of former Democratic Rep. Filemon Vela in March. By securing 51 percent of the vote (compared to 43 percent for her closest Democratic rival Dan Sanchez), she avoided a potential runoff vote in August.

But to hold the seat after her term runs out in January, she’ll need to defeat Democratic Rep. Vicente Gonzalez, who currently represents the 15th Congressional District, in a redrawn 34th Congressional District in November’s midterms.

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