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Maureen Galindo and Johnny Garcia, candidates for U.S. House in Texas\u2019 newly drawn 35th Congressional District, participate in a forum held\u00a0this month by the League of Women Voters of the San Antonio Area. Bexar County voters would do well to\u00a0reject Galindo\u2019s antisemitism.<\/p>\n
Katina Zentz\/San Antonio Express-News<\/p>\n
Maureen\u00a0Galindo is\u00a0not a compelling candidate for Congress.<\/p>\n
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When our Editorial Board met in February with the four Democratic candidates for Texas\u2019 35th Congressional District, Galindo stood out for her lack of policy depth and occasional stray or fringe comment. She shared how she moved to San Antonio for two reasons: affordable housing and breakfast tacos.<\/p>\n
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She also shared how her grandfather was \u201ca political exile from Ireland\u201d who had been a member of the Irish Republican Army, which was responsible for about 1,800 deaths, including hundreds of civilians.<\/p>\n
When I asked her whether she supported the IRA\u2019s tactics<\/a> \u2014 the bombings, the assassinations that defined the Troubles \u2014 she said, \u201cI support the Second Amendment.\u201d<\/p>\n Unsettling as that exchange was, Galindo never shared her antisemitic views in our meeting. Those can be found on social media and have recently garnered national attention, most notably in an opinion piece by New York Times columnist Michelle Goldberg, headlined \u201cDemocrats can\u2019t let this antisemitic sex therapist win her runoff.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n Galindo\u2019s comments include<\/a> how Jews are members of \u201cthe synagogue of Satan,\u201d that the Jews of today are not the Jews of the Bible (but \u201cfake Jews\u201d<\/a>), that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security is based in Tel Aviv, that \u201cJews who own Hollywood\u201d then \u201cuse books and movies to create realities.\u201d<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Her comments follow a familiar antisemitic arc in that they cast Jewish people as part of a shadowy cabal exerting unseen influence over current events, politics and policies. Responding to Goldberg\u2019s column, Galindo doubled down on this rhetoric, disparaging her runoff opponent, Bexar County sheriff\u2019s deputy Johnny Garcia, as being owned by \u201cthe Zionist network.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cEfffffffffffffffffff every blood soaked vote for Zionist associated candidates and politicans (sic),\u201d she also posted on Facebook. \u201cTreason trials for them all.\u201d<\/p>\n In the short run, if Democratic voters in the 35th Congressional District choose to go in Galindo\u2019s direction, it will almost certainly lead to defeat in November.<\/p>\n This newly drawn district, which leans heavily Hispanic, favored President Donald Trump by 10 percentage points in the November 2024 election. But now, when Trump\u2019s approval rating\u00a0has plunged to new depths<\/a>, a Democrat could win over disaffected Republicans and conservative-leaning independents.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n And perhaps the Democrat to do that is\u00a0Garcia<\/a>, a centrist who has received the endorsement of progressive U.S. Rep. Greg\u00a0Casar<\/a>, who represents the current \u00a035th Congressional District. While Garcia comes across as measured, Galindo has railed against \u201ctokenass puppet sellout Hispanics.\u201d<\/p>\n Can Galindo win a general election? That\u2019s a strategic question for Democrats to consider as voting begins Monday in the runoff.<\/p>\n But that question does not address the implications of having someone like\u00a0Galindo represent San Antonio in Congress\u00a0\u2014 Bexar County voters already face the prospect of being represented in another congressional district by Brandon Herrera, \u201cthe AK Guy,\u201d who has joked about the Holocaust<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 or why voters might tolerate a candidate who expresses\u00a0intolerance.<\/p>\n Many legitimate criticisms of the Israeli government\u2019s brutal response in Gaza to the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terrorist attack have been unfairly dismissed as antisemitic. Goldberg has been a leading voice on this point. But, as she also notes, some of those responses are rooted in\u00a0antisemitism.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n We should be able to condemn a terrorist attack, a humanitarian crisis in Gaza and domestic antisemitism, and yet making such distinctions appears beyond our collective grasp. More distressing than\u00a0Galindo\u2019s views, which tarnish the legitimate humanitarian concerns of others, is the question of how many people share them.<\/p>\n We are living through a moment of rising\u00a0antisemitism that crosses party lines. On Wednesday, someone raised a flag with swastikas on New York University\u2019s campus<\/a>. Earlier this month, the Anti-Defamation League issued its audit of\u00a0antisemitic incidents in 2025<\/a>, finding 6,274 incidents of harassment, vandalism and assault. With 17 such incidents a day, 2025 ranks as the third-highest year on record behind 2023 and 2024.<\/p>\n Here are some of the incidents in San Antonio last year:<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Against such a backdrop, it is unsurprising, although heartbreaking, that a candidate like\u00a0Galindo would emerge. How much her views fit in the mainstream is a disturbing question Bexar County Democratic primary voters will soon answer.<\/p>\n jbrodesky@express-news.net<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Maureen Galindo and Johnny Garcia, candidates for U.S. House in Texas\u2019 newly drawn 35th Congressional District, participate in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":295661,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[107783,30771,3269,107785,107784,61611,62999,39580,82,84,83],"class_list":["post-295660","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-antonio","tag-35th-congressional-district","tag-antisemitism","tag-democratic-party","tag-edantisemitism","tag-edpolitics","tag-johnny-garcia","tag-maureen-galindo","tag-primary","tag-san-antonio","tag-san-antonio-headlines","tag-san-antonio-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295660","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=295660"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295660\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/295661"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=295660"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=295660"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=295660"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}