Johnny Garcia won the Democratic primary runoff for Texas‘s 35th Congressional District on Tuesday, defeating opponent Maureen Galindo in a closely watched race shaped by controversy surrounding Galindo’s campaign.Garcia received 60.5% of the vote to Galindo’s 39.5% when the Associated Press called the race Tuesday evening.In the final weeks before the election, Galindo, a self-described sex therapist, faced a firestorm of backlash over a series of inflammatory social media posts that critics condemned as antisemitic.
“She’ll turn Karnes ICE Detention Center into a prison for American Zionists and former ICE officers for human trafficking,” Galindo wrote in a recent Instagram post. “It will also be a castration processing center for pedophiles, which will probably be most of the Zionists.”
The remarks prompted several Democrats to distance themselves from her candidacy, including two Jewish House Democrats who said they would support expelling her from Congress if she won the seat.
Questions also emerged over Galindo’s campaign financing after reports that her campaign received thousands of dollars from Lead Left PAC, a political action committee Democrats have alleged has ties to Republican operatives.
