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The Democratic primary runoff for Texas’ 35th Congressional District has drawn heightened attention after the Jewish Federation of San Antonio condemned comments by frontrunner Maureen Galindo as antisemitic.
Housing activist and sex therapist Maureen Galindo appeared on Texas Public Radio’s The Source on Thursday and denied being antisemitic but said, “I am against Zionist Jews.”
Galindo then defended herself by repeating claims widely criticized as antisemitic tropes that Zionists own the media, control the banking system and all politicians, including in San Antonio.
“We have Israeli Zionists who are influencing our local politics and our South Texas politics,” she said.
Texas’ 35th Congressional District is a Hispanic-majority district that was redrawn in the recent GOP-led mid-decade redistricting to include South and East Bexar County as well as Guadalupe, Wilson, and Karnes counties.
Galindo said her opponent in the Democratic primary runoff, Johnny Garcia, should possibly be tried for treason because of his support for Israel. Galindo has also said that Garcia’s campaign is funded the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC.)
AIPAC is a bipartisan U.S.-based lobbying organization established in 1954 to strengthen, protect, and promote the U.S.-Israel relationship. The issue of Democratic candidates accepting money from AIPAC has become controversial among some progressive voters who object to the Israeli government’s actions in Gaza.
Garcia, who is a Bexar County sheriff’s deputy, said he hasn’t taken any money from AIPAC.
“She's drawing these baseless claims from the group called AIPAC Tracker that put us on that website after receiving the endorsement of the Democratic Majority for Israel,” Garcia said.
Garcia objected to Galindo’s remarks and said they make the community less safe.
“We combat anti-Semitic remarks that we've seen my opponent make,” he said.
In a statement The Jewish Federation of San Antonio pushed back against Galindo’s comments and said it “strongly condemns the spread of antisemitic tropes and conspiracy theories in public discourse. Divisive and hateful rhetoric targeting the Jewish community has no place in our civic life. San Antonio is a vibrant and diverse community, and an attack on any one group is an attack on us all. We call on all candidates and elected officials to engage in meaningful dialogue with the community and refrain from bigoted and offensive attacks. There is no place for hate in San Antonio.”
Galindo and Garcia also diverged on their views about the funding of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
While criticizing ICE, Galindo repeatedly invoked Israel and the IDF, despite ICE being a domestic U.S. agency under the Department of Homeland Security. Galindo said ICE is trained by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), the national military of the State of Israel. The IDF faces significant international and domestic controversy regarding alleged violations of international law, including allegations of excessive force resulting in high civilian casualties and misconduct by soldiers during the war in Gaza.
“I think that if ICE is not eradicated completely, then what we're setting ourselves up for is an AI surveillance prison state. So, if you want to criticize Israel, you get thrown into that warehouse on the East Side,” she said. She also said about ICE: “This is an Israeli occupation of America.”
Garcia defended ICE’s mission but said he opposed some of its tactics.
“ICE has a particular job, making sure that they're stopping the flow of illegal drugs coming into our communities, making sure that cartels are not operating inside of our borders, but also to stop the flow of illegal human smuggling and trafficking. That's the job they should be doing. We know that if we abolish ICE and eliminate it, there's going to be a significant gap in public safety,” he said.
Garcia said ICE went too far in the killing of innocent civilians in Minnesota, referencing Renee Good and Alex Pretti.
“They (ICE) need to be combating actual bad actors, removing them from our community,” he said.
Garcia said he is running as a “Blue Dog Democrat,” a caucus of moderate and conservative Democrats in the U.S. House that focuses on fiscal responsibility, national defense, and consensus-building.
He said he is aligned with Laredo Congressman Henry Cuellar, Rio Grande Valley Congressman Vicente Gonzalez, and Tejano star Bobby Pulido, a candidate for Texas’ 15th Congressional District.
Galindo accused Garcia of having a “colonized mindset.” Garcia countered by saying he is a moderate who is trying to “build a broad coalition” that will “ultimately win this race.”
Galindo is also facing criticism over support she is receiving from a Florida-based dark money political action committee called Lean Left, which Punchbowl News reported was backed by Republican donors.
Recently, Lean Left mailed flyers to Democratic voters in the 35th Congressional District supporting Galindo and saying she backed free healthcare and imprisoning President Donald Trump.
Galindo said she did not know anything about Lean Left and had no contact with them. She declined to condemn the support.
The PAC’s apparent strategy is to boost Galindo’s chances in the runoff because they see her as the easier candidate for a Republican to defeat in the November general election.
But Galindo challenges that assumption. “I absolutely have the best chance at winning. And so, yeah, it would definitely fail if that was their agenda,” she said.
The winner of the May 26 Democratic primary runoff will face either State Sen. John Lujan or Carlos De La Cruz, who is endorsed by President Donald Trump.
