UPDATE: Since this article was published, the web page referenced has been taken down.
When Republican candidates announce campaigns, voters are treated to a relatively standard playbook on their campaign website. There’s pictures of the candidate dressed in “cowboy casual” with their family in Texas bluebonnets, a candid photo at the rifle range, and other undisputedly Texan imagery.
And in terms of issues, virtually every one of them promises to fight Obamacare, protect the Second Amendment, and oppose illegal immigration. But voters looking to learn about Republican candidate Cynthia Flores from her website were in for a real surprise.
For Flores, who is running for the Texas House in Round Rock, neither cowboy hats nor conservative talking points graced her mouthful of a website—https://cynthiafloresforstaterep52.com.
Instead, voters who clicked on her “Spending” page were told that there is “More work to do for the workers I met in Galesburg, Ill., who are losing their union jobs at the Maytag plant that’s moving to Mexico, and now are having to compete with their own children for jobs that pay seven bucks an hour.”
Umm. Okay. But what does Flores think about “Energy?”
“At various stages in the campaign, some commentators have deemed me either “too black” or “not black enough,” reads the page on her campaign website “We saw racial tensions bubble to the surface during the week before the South Carolina primary. Why associate myself with Reverend Wright in the first place, they may ask? Why not join another church?”
If these ideas sound familiar, it’s because you’ve heard them before—from Barack Obama. Indeed, each “Issues” page on Flores’ website contains conservative campaign kryptonite lifted directly from Obama’s speeches.
So does Flores really believe all of this stuff? Probably not.
To Texas Scorecard, it appears that Flores’ website was launched too early and still contains filler text from a similar website it is based upon. We desperately hope this is the case given that the homepage of Flores’ website invites voters to “Meet our candidate: John Smith.”
But voters should be asking why Flores’ campaign is using a web vendor that works with Democrat candidates and thinks it’s a good idea to fill pages with Obama speeches and include “Foreign Policy” pages for a state lawmaker campaign.
After all, it wouldn’t be particularly shameful if this shoddy release had quoted conservatives like Ronald Reagan or Greg Abbott instead of conservatives’ very worst enemy.
What appears to be the case is that Flores is simply the handpicked establishment candidate to succeed the outgoing liberal Republican State Rep. Larry Gonzales, who is “retiring” to accept a position at the University of Texas.
Gonzales has already endorsed Flores in what is expected to be a contentious open seat primary battle with many other candidates vying for the position as well.
At the time of publishing, the Flores campaign had not responded to a request for comment. We will update the story if, and when, they do.