Texas Republican Mayra Flores, a former member of Congress who is running to retake her old seat, was exposed in a curious kerfuffle in which she seems to have nicked photos of Mexican food from other social media accounts and posted them as her own.
Dubbed “Grubgate,” the bizarre controversy came to light when an X user shared a screenshot of a photo that Flores recently posted with the caption, “The Ranch life with family is the best,” next to a 2022 post from a “Visit Guyana” Facebook account that used the same photo.
Here’s @MayraFlores_TX trying to convince people that she’s living the high life and making dinner over an open fire at the ranch. Only problem is: this picture was stolen from a Guyanese facebook page. Why would you lie, Mayra? pic.twitter.com/zd4mIcJQwg
— Ben Anderson (@ben_the_ind) January 1, 2024
A conservative website, Current Revolt, unearthed more instances in which Flores appears to have passed off photos from other accounts as her own. The Texas Tribune also found additional photos on Flores’ Instagram that seem to have been taken from other social media accounts.
Under one photo she reposted, initially shared online by a Spanish-language magazine in 2021, Flores wrote: “As a proud Latina who knows how to cook, homemade Mexican food tastes better from a gas stove” — apparently in reference to the recent outrage du jour over gas stoves.
Flores became the first Mexican-born member of Congress when she was elected to the U.S. House in a special election in June 2022. She was ousted in November that year by a Democrat, Rep. Vincente Gonzalez.
She launched a bid for her old seat in June 2023. Granted, the stakes here are very low, and unlike another scandal involving an also-former member of Congress, no campaign funds appear to have been misused in the making of this one. Flores herself seemed reluctant to delve into it. She told the Tribune in a text message that the gas stove photo reminded her of her childhood and that she hadn’t “intended to mislead” anyone. She added that she had deleted her latest post to “clear up any confusion,” but when the Tribune asked for further details, she reportedly told the newspaper to focus on “the border crisis.”
Clarissa-Jan Lim is a breaking news reporter for MS NOW. She was previously a senior reporter and editor at BuzzFeed News.
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