Former Republican Rep. Mayra Flores announced Tuesday she's running to take back the south Texas district seat she lost last year.
Flores, the wife of a Border Patrol agent, made her announcement on "Fox & Friends."
"I am announcing for Congress," she said. "We are taking back our seat. We will flip this district and take back what is ours in 2024."
Flores won a special election for an open seat in Texas' 34th congressional district in June 2022 after Democrat Rep. Filemon Vela Jr. resigned to take a job at a lobbying firm. But Flores lost in the general election in November to Democrat Vicente Gonzalez by more than 8 percentage points.
Republicans have been throwing their weight behind trying to return Flores to Congress, targeting the seat she lost after becoming the first Mexican-born woman to be elected to the House.
The National Republican Congressional Committee commissioned a poll that showed Flores' chances of taking back the seat greatly have improved, the Washington Examiner reported.
The poll showed Flores with a 42.4%-41.7% lead over Gonzalez, with 15.8% undecided, and showed her with a wide lead among independents, 50.2%-30.8%, the Examiner reported.
During Tuesday's interview, she urged Latinos to side with Republicans.
"Our values align with the Republican Party. Our values align. I am pro-God, pro-life, pro-family," she said. "The Democrat Party stands against everything we stand for."