A Texas Democratic congressional candidate who drew widespread condemnation for calling to imprison “American Zionists” in a converted ICE detention facility is now blaming journalists and her own party for the furor — while doubling down on the core of her remarks.
Maureen Galindo, a sex therapist and housing activist, is running in the Tuesday Democratic primary runoff for Texas’ 35th Congressional District — a seat redrawn by Republican legislators in 2025 to favor the GOP, stripping the district of its Austin base and reconfiguring it around San Antonio and outlying eastern counties. Ms. Galindo set off a firestorm with an Instagram post in which she vowed to write legislation turning the Karnes County ICE Detention Center into a prison for “American Zionists and former ICE officers for human trafficking.” In the same post, written in the third person, she added that the facility “will also be a castration processing center for pedophiles, which will probably be most of the Zionists.”
In a social media video posted Thursday, Ms. Galindo disputed media coverage of her remarks, saying the word “prison” — not “internment camp” — was the term she used, and blamed the backlash on a deliberate campaign to mischaracterize her.
“I’m sorry to all journalists if I missed your email or social media message, it got lost in a wave of hundreds of death threats and the most vile things,” she said. “I’m in Texas, I know MAGA. This is worse than MAGA, that’s because MAGA and Zionism is religious overtaking of government.”
Ms. Galindo nonetheless reiterated her call to jail what she termed “billionaire American Zionists,” accusing them of funding what she called “genocidal prison systems.” Her campaign clarified that the retrofitted Karnes facility would be open to people of multiple faiths — including Evangelicals, Catholics and Mormons — and said the project would create jobs for the region.
In separate Instagram posts, Ms. Galindo accused her runoff opponent, former Bexar County Public Information Officer Johnny Garcia, of participating in a human trafficking conspiracy run by wealthy Zionist Jews. When asked about Democratic leaders condemning her, she said she does not care “what any Zionist-owned politician thinks.”
The response from within her own party was swift. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York and Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chair Rep. Suzan DelBene of Washington called on House Republican leadership to “immediately cease propping up this antisemitic candidacy, pull spending in the race and forcefully condemn these comments.”
Reps. Josh Gottheimer of New Jersey and Jared Moskowitz of Florida went further, vowing to force a House floor vote to expel Ms. Galindo every day Congress is in session if she wins the seat.
“If for some reason Maureen Galindo wins the Congressional election in TX-35, as soon as she is sworn in, we will force a vote to expel her every single day we are here,” the two lawmakers said in a joint statement, adding that her views have “no place in our Party or country.”
Even members of the House’s progressive wing broke with Ms. Galindo. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York called her comments “disgusting,” and Mr. Garcia said in a video response that they have “no place in our Democratic Party or any place in public service.”
The Texas Tribune reported that party leaders are also raising alarms about outside spending in the race. The Lead Left PAC, a newly formed political action committee based in Tallahassee, Florida, has spent nearly $1 million boosting Ms. Galindo’s candidacy. The group’s website metadata was found to contain links to the GOP fundraising platform WinRed, though that metadata was subsequently removed. Ms. Galindo has separately told Axios she would introduce legislation to have “all American candidates and elected officials who have ever taken Israeli money tried for treason.”
Federal Election Commission records show Ms. Galindo’s campaign raised $10,917 through early May. She advanced to the runoff despite that meager fundraising haul, finishing ahead of Mr. Garcia in the March primary. Texas Public Radio reported that Texas Senate candidate and state Rep. James Talarico confirmed he would not campaign for Ms. Galindo even if she wins the nomination.
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