Former Rep. Mayra Flores (R-Texas) says the “sudden health scare” that led to a hospital visit on the day she launched a campaign to challenge Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Texas) last week was rooted in stress and shouldn’t affect her congressional bid.
“Stress can really put a burden on your overall health,” Flores told The Hill. “But it’s all taken care of.”
Flores told The Hill she was excited when she woke up the morning of her campaign launch last week and had a day of interviews on her schedule — but after taking her kids to school, something was wrong.
“I just was not feeling well. I was feeling very lightheaded. I knew something was wrong, and I knew I had to take care of it,” Flores said. “So I went to the doctor, and it was stress.”
“That’s what most moms do. We take our kids to the doctor. We take, you know, our dogs to the doctor. But we forget to go to the doctor ourselves and make sure that we’re healthy,” Flores said.
Flores launched her campaign in the morning on April 15, writing on the social platform X that she was “deeply honored to announce my candidacy for Congress—a chance to serve the people and uphold the values that make our nation great.”
Hours later, Flores’s campaign posted on X that she had been hospitalized, asking for “prayers and support.” Later in the day, the campaign posted that she had faced a “sudden health scare” and was fully recovering.
Flores said she will not have any long-term problems, and was advised to rest, take vitamins and eat better. The day before, she said, she had only had a shake to eat that day.
“If I’m too busy, I feel like I don’t want to waste time, I just have a shake. And I’ve been doing that for quite a while,” Flores said. “So that is what also deteriorated my health, because I was replacing my meals with shakes.”
“I’m just going to have to take care of myself, you know, take vitamin D … I need to sleep better, make time for myself,” Flores said.
Flores made history in becoming the first Mexican-born woman in Congress, representing Texas’s 34th District in South Texas after winning a special election in 2022 to replace former Rep. Filemon Vela (D), who left Congress before the end of his term. But she lost the general election later that year to Rep. Vicente Gonzales (D), who moved districts after new congressional lines were drawn, and was not successful in challenging him again for that seat in 2024.
This time, Flores is seeking to represent the nearby 28th District, another district that borders Mexico — and is represented by Cuellar, a top target of Republicans.
Flores noted that the district is Republican-leaning — “the same district that I grew up visiting.”
“I grew up all over South Texas. Well, I will say I grew up all over Texas. I’m a migrant kid, so we traveled a lot growing up,” she said.
“I love the [Rio Grande Valley]. I love bringing awareness to this area, whether you’re in Texas 34, Texas 15” — a neighboring district represented by Republican Rep. Monica de la Cruz — “or Texas 28 the district that I’m running — at the end of the day, we’re all people of faith, family and hard work. And this area, for a long time, has been taken for granted and not had that representation.”
Cuellar is one of 13 House Democrats who represent districts that Trump won in 2024. He won his 2024 race for the 28th District by 5.6 percent — despite he and his wife being indicted on charges related to bribery earlier in the year. Cuellar and his wife have denied wrongdoing, and a trial is scheduled to start in September.
Flores said the indictment is one of the main reasons she is challenging Cuellar, remarking: “I’m surprised he hasn’t resigned.”
