![]() ![]() Vela said he's glad to be capping off his congressional career with two major wins: More than $100 million in federal funding for improvements to Cameron County's Gateway International Bridge and - announced just this week - $68 million for the Port of Brownsville to help pay for deepening the Brownsville Ship Channel. ![]() I think he's fully up to speed and ready to roll on all of that stuff." Back last year when I decided I wasn't going to run again, we started to talk to him and his staff about all the things we had worked on, like Port of Brownsville issues, some of the (international) bridge issues, SpaceX issues. "We've worked hand in hand pretty much on everything we've done. Vince and I have a personal relationship that probably goes back 20 years," he said. If that happens, TX-34 constituents can expect a high level of continuity from Vela's time in Congress, Vela said. ![]() "I think Vince is about 99.9 percent certain to be the member of Congress for TX-34 for the next two years," Vela said. While redistricting has made TX-15 more competitive for Republicans - he considers it a toss-up in the November election - that's not necessarily the case for TX-34, he said. Vela said the Republican party, which made gains in the Rio Grande Valley during the 2020 election, sees a TX-34 special election as a chance to take the seat away from Democrats, though he feels the seat is safe. "What I've heard is that Dan Sanchez, former county commissioner, is considering running for it," Vela said. Vela's longtime friend Vicente Gonzalez, currently representing Texas District 15 in Congress, is the Democratic candidate running for TX-34 in the November election but will not take part in any special election and instead will serve out his current term. His early departure will prompt a special election, the exact timing of which isn't set in stone and is Abbott's call to some extent. Vela, who announced a year ago that he would not seek reelection to the seat he's held since 2013, is leaving Congress before the end of his current term to take a job with the law and lobbying firm Akin Gump, headquartered in Washington D.C. "Please let me know how I can be of assistance during this transition." "It has been a profound honor to represent the people of the Rio Grande Valley of Texas for the last nine years," he wrote briefly. Greg Abbott and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. has stepped down from his Texas 34 congressional district seat after sending resignation letters today to Gov. 31-It's official: Brownsville Democrat Filemon Vela Jr. Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-TX-30) has previously indicated that this would be her final term.Mar. Vela is not expected to be the only Texas Democrat to retire at the end of this term, either, as Rep. Regardless, the retirement of Vela will likely make it easier for the Republicans who control the redistricting process to carve out a seat in South Texas favorable to their party, as it removes a notable incumbent factor out of the equation. However, redistricting itself is also up in the air, as there have been substantial delays in the release of the necessary data from the U.S. What Texas’ 34th Congressional District will look like by the election of 2022 is to be determined, as the Lone Star State is expected to gain three new congressional districts during redistricting later this year. News of the retirements of Vela and Kirkpatrick comes as the border faces an ongoing immigration crisis with Republicans pointing their fingers at the lax policies of the Biden administration. Ann Kirkpatrick (D-AZ), a border Democrat in Arizona who also recently announced that she would not be seeking reelection. Lizzie Fletcher (D-TX-07) and Henry Cuellar (D-TX-28). In February, the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) released a list of targets for 2022 that includes Vela and Gonzalez, as well as Reps. Vicente Gonzalez (D-TX-15), saw an even closer reelection bid as Republicans in South Texas came out in full force, signaling an electoral shift in the border region that the GOP hopes to capitalize on. In 2020, Trump’s share of the vote increased to 48 percent, though Joe Biden still carried the district with 52 percent.Īn analysis from the Daily Kos Elections notes that swing in Trump voters in Vela’s district was the third-largest in the nation, though Vela himself still won reelection handily with 55 percent against his Republican opponent’s 42 percent.Ī neighboring Democrat to Vela, Rep. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and the Democratic gubernatorial candidate, Lupe Valdez, carried it against Gov. That shifted right in 2018 when Senate candidate Beto O’Rourke carried the district with 58 percent of the vote against Sen. In 2016, Hillary Clinton carried the district with 59 percent of the vote, while Donald Trump only received 37 percent.
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