Texas House candidate Monica De La Cruz doesn’t believe Democrats and their allies in the mainstream media understand the Hispanic community in South Texas.
"We're not complicated people here in South Texas. We love America. We want security. We love our family and we love God. It's really that easy and that's why our values align with the Republican Party," De La Cruz told Fox News Digital.
De La Cruz faces progressive Democrat Michelle Vallejo in Texas’ newly redrawn 15th Congressional District along the southern border. She feels the left has woken up to the fact that more Hispanic voters are starting to embrace Republican politics, as a group partially funded by liberal billionaire George Soros is attempting to take control of Spanish-language talk radio and mainstream news organizations have put a spotlight on the changing landscape.
"I think that there are several Hispanic candidates, as well as a diverse set of candidates in the Republican Party, that are reflecting the fabric of America," she said.
"We have six excellent Hispanic candidates, most of which are bilingual, who are reflection of their community, and at the end of the day, sharing the true values of Hispanics, which are law and order, the love of God, their family, and the appreciation of hard work and the American dream," De La Cruz continued. "I think that our voice has just become too loud to ignore, that the national media and the [Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee], Soros can no longer ignore us and thus can no longer take the Hispanic vote for granted."
While Hispanics seem more drawn to the GOP, De La Cruz doesn’t think the Democratic Party has done itself any favors when it comes to retaining key Hispanic voters.
"They have become woke, pushing down their cultural radicalism, which includes Latinx. I mean, quite frankly, changing the Latino’s culture and our beautiful Spanish language. The average abuelita out in the Hispanic communities, they don't know what Latinx is, nor does it even make sense," De La Cruz said. "Them continuing to push this cultural radicalism on us is an insult to us, quite frankly, and just one of the many reasons why the people who were once with the Democrat Party are now walking away."
De La Cruz previously ran in 2020 and nearly upset Rep. Vicente Gonzalez, D-Texas, in the process, and she has noticed a dramatic shift in ideology of voters in South Texas in recent years.
"2020 was a pivotal moment for South Texas because in Texas 15, obviously we swung the district 18 points," she said. "We did that without any national help, any state help, just hundreds of patriots that said, ‘No more. We are no longer woke. We are awake to what is happening to us.’"
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De La Cruz believes border security and immigration are two completely different things that everyone from Democratic lawmakers to the mainstream media seem to lump together.
"The people in South Texas want a secure border. We believe in law and order, and that's where the Democrat Party goes wrong," De La Cruz said. "They think that Hispanics want an open border and that just simply is not true. The Hispanics here, the people, South Texas want a safe and secure system."
When it comes to immigration, De La Cruz said voters in her district "believe that the Biden administration has caused the largest humanitarian crisis" America has ever seen.
"The likes of it are just unimaginable unless you live here in South Texas where these immigrants are exploited by the cartels," she said. "What we want to see is immigration reform. We want a faster system. We want a system that will bring people here safely and securely to truly live out the American dream that they're seeking."
De La Cruz feels the national media simply isn’t spending enough time covering the crisis along the border. She has noticed news outlets sending reporters to conduct a handful of interviews over a couple of days and quickly "put a story out as if they’ve solved" the problem.
"They don’t get this area," she said. "South Texas has been largely untouched by the national media. And because of it, I think that they need a better understanding of who we are as people down here and the values that we represent."
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Earlier this year, The New York Times famously labeled De La Cruz a "far-right Latina" in a piece about herself, Rep. Mayra Flores, R-Texas, and House candidate Cassy Garcia. Much like mainstream media coverage of the border, De La Cruz feels the article is an example of coastal elite journalists simply not understanding the people of her area.
"They come down here for 24 to 48 hours and write this piece that is misleading and does not share what the entire area is about. We’re not extremist, we’re not far right." she said. "We're common-sense individuals who love God, who love our family, and who love this country. And at the end of the day, if those values did not align with these individuals here in South Texas, with the communities of South Texas, then you would not see the success that we're seeing on a national basis. The truth of the matter is, the Democrat Party, The New York Times, they cannot accept it, nor believe that this area is exactly who we are."
Fox News’ David Rutz contributed to this report.
