Texas Rep. Mayra Flores cited for campaign finance violations

Republican former Rep. Mayra Flores was cited by the Federal Elections Commission for a $15,000 payment she made to herself.

Flores won a special election to represent Texas’ 34th congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives in June 2022. Five months later, she lost the general election to current Democratic Rep. Vicente Gonzalez. Flores is challenging Gonzalez again in November.

The citation, which was issued on January 7, concerns three $5,000 payments that Flores received from her own campaign between July and September 2023. The payments are coded as Flores’ salary. The FEC says Flores was not eligible for a salary in this period and must return the funds.

“A principal campaign committee may not pay a salary to a candidate prior to the filing deadline for access to the primary election ballot for the federal office that the candidate seeks,” the citation says. “In this instance, the filing deadline for access to the primary election ballot in Texas was on 12/11/2023. Salary payments made before this date constitutes a personal use of campaign funds.”

In addition to these payments, Flores’ campaign was also cited for failing to include required information about several donors on their FEC report. 

The citation says failure to correct either matter could result in an audit or disciplinary action.

In June 2022, CNN reported that Flores had deleted several social media posts in which she questioned the legitimacy of the 2020 presidential election and spread widely debunked conspiracy theories about the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

“The President has fought to the bitter end and wanted peaceful protests, Flores wrote. “He has now publicly condoned [sic] these violent acts that surely was caused by infiltrators.”

In July 2022, Flores still refused to acknowledge that President Joe Biden lawfully won the 2020 election.

A Flores campaign spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment  for this story.