Candidate’s love for Trump isn’t reciprocated

In politics, as in life, unrequited love is a tragic thing.

In the Republican runoff for the 23rd Congressional District, Raul Reyes Jr. has made it abundantly clear how much he adores President Donald Trump.

He has referred to the GOP as the “Trump Republican Party” and put out campaign mailers that could almost fool you into thinking that he, and not Mike Pence, will be Trump’s running mate in November.

One mailer features the smiling side-by-side images of Reyes, a retired Air Force officer based in Castroville, and Trump.

“Rely on Reyes,” the ad proclaims, “to fight for Trump, for Texas and for you.”

Reyes also has attacked his runoff opponent, former Navy cryptologist Tony Gonzales, for accepting the endorsement of outgoing District 23 Rep. Will Hurd, a fellow Republican who has dared to offer occasional criticisms of Trump.

One recent Reyes mailer came to the attention of Trump campaign reps, and the results were not pretty.

The ad photoshopped images of Reyes and Trump to create the impression that they’re standing together behind a lectern, with both of them giving the thumbsup sign.

“Raul Reyes fully supports President Trump’s plan to build a strong border wall from the Gulf of Mexico to the Pacific Ocean,” the mail piece promises.

All this fawning, however, has done Reyes no favors. In fact, it earned him a scolding from Team Trump.

Katrina Pierson, a senior adviser and spokesperson for the Trump campaign, responded to Reyes’ ad Friday by tweeting, “This is misleading, and possibly unethical. There has not been an endorsement awarded in this race.”

(The connection between Team Trump and the District 23 runoff is Dwight Parscale, a Gonzales supporter who happens to be the father of Trump’s campaign manager, Brad Parscale.)

On Friday, Reyes found himself in the awkward position of publicly arguing with the spokesperson for his political role model.

Within a couple of hours,

Reyes shot back, “No deception here. The mail is true: I am the only TRUMP REPUBLICAN. Wake up before you realize Tony G

(Will Hurd clone/2.0) is in Congress.”

Reyes and Gonzales are slugging it out for the chance to take on Democratic nominee Gina Ortiz Jones in this sprawling, heavily Latino swing district that stretches from South San Antonio to El Paso County.

Given that there isn’t too much to separate these two conservatives with long military backgrounds, it’s not surprising that the race has gotten petty and personal.

Reyes did not respond to an interview request for this column.

Gonzales said, “I’ve been in this race with him for 11 months now, and I’ve learned one thing: You know Reyes is lying when his lips are moving. It’s misinformation after misinformation.”

Here’s the strange aspect to Reyes’ efforts to wrap himself up in a Trump blanket: Trump isn’t very popular in District 23.

Four years ago, Trump lost the district to Hillary Clinton by 3 percentage points, even while carrying the rest of the state by a comfortable margin. Hurd was able to keep the congressional seat in Republican hands only by distancing himself from Trump’s coarse rhetoric.

This year, with polls showing Trump and presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden in a dead heat in Texas, Trump’s standing in District 23 is surely worse than ever.

Of course, the twisted nature of our politics is such that what works in a general election often bears little relation to what works in a primary. In the GOP runoff, Reyes is playing to the party base, which is still loyal to Trump.

If Reyes’ Trump worship carries him to a runoff win, it could also send him to defeat in November.

Roy staffer takes leave

On June 24, this column looked at a series of inflammatory tweets from Wade Miller, a retired Marine who serves as chief of staff for U.S. Rep. Chip Roy.

That afternoon, Roy announced that Miller would be taking a temporary leave from his job.

“It came to my attention in recent days that my Chief of Staff, Wade Miller, exercised poor judgment and used inappropriate language while engaging with individuals on social media,” Roy said in a statement.

“It was wrong, and in response, my first step was to reprimand him privately, request that he back away from social media, and relay to my entire staff that under no circumstances is this kind of profane language acceptable on social media or any other platform.”

The first-term congressman added that Miller, an infantry combat veteran who served in Iraq, apologized to him and the congressional staff and decided to make appointments for posttraumatic stress disorder counseling.

“I have put him on leave subject to completing appropriate counseling,” Roy said. “And he has taken himself off of all forms of social media, effective immediately.”