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WASHINGTON — The South Texas man at the center of a new ad attacking U.S. Rep. Vicente Gonzalez is a self proclaimed “conspiracy theorist” who has spread theories on social media about 9/11 and the COVID pandemic and mocked both Michelle Obama and a Republican congressman.

The ad was released this week by the National Republican Congressional Committee on behalf of former U.S. Rep. Mayra Flores, who is trying to win back the seat for the GOP.

Texas Congressional District 34 stretches from Brownsville to Kingsville along the state’s southeastern coast. It is one of the few competitive races in the state and a top priority for both major political parties to win.

The ad features Brownsville business owner Ruben Guerrero ridiculing Gonzalez, a McAllen Democrat, for pushing “sex changes for kids” over caring about the economy. The ad is part of an $800,000 ad reservation in the South Texas market to be broadcast in both English and Spanish. Guerrero’s voice was also featured in a radio ad by the NRCC.

Gonzalez, a moderate Democrat, has denied supporting tax-funded gender transition surgeries for minors.

Guerrero posted memes on Instagram calling 9/11 “the biggest inside job in history … until COVID,” ridiculing former First Lady Michelle Obama as secretly a man, and mocking U.S. Rep. Dan Crenshaw’s eyepatch, which he wears after losing his right eye serving in Afghanistan.

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Crenshaw is a Houston Republican. His office declined to comment.

Flores’ campaign, which was not involved in the creation of the ad, distanced her from Guerrero’s social media. Flores follows Guerrero’s Instagram.

“These posts are clearly not reflective of Mayra’s views,” the Flores campaign said in a statement. “That said, it’s a great ad with an important message about Vicente Gonzalez’s extreme record of supporting taxpayer funded sex change surgeries for children.”

Guerrero is not the first conspiracy theorist to be featured in a congressional ad this year. A Republican running in New Mexico’s 2nd Congressional District, another top target for Republicans this year, has also been criticized for spotlighting a 9/11 conspiracy theorist.

To be sure, Guerrero’s social media influence is small. He has about 1,700 followers on Instagram. When contacted by The Texas Tribune, Guerrero stood by his social media posts.

“I’m a conspiracy theorist that’s almost batting .400,” he said in a telephone interview before insisting guidance given during the COVID-19 pandemic was wrong.

When asked about the meme mocking Crenshaw’s eye patch, Guerrero said he couldn’t recall his reasoning behind posting the meme, but said that Republicans “are not all equal,” suggesting that Crenshaw is a Republican in name only.

“I post a lot, as you can tell,” he said.

Guerrero posted the meme in January of last year — around the same time Crenshaw angered many right-wing Republicans for criticizing far-right U.S. House Republicans who did not support Kevin McCarthy’s bid for speaker.

Political campaigns often recruit everyday voters to offer testimonials in ads that get blasted to thousands of viewers. Subjects of testimonials are generally vetted to ensure their backstories are accurate.

Mass media ads have diminishing impact on changing opinions, said Daron Shaw, a political science professor at the University of Texas at Austin who previously worked on the 2000 George W. Bush campaign. Additionally, the background of a person giving a testimonial likely won’t make much of a difference in the efficacy of an ad.

“There’s a question about the overall effect of this sort of advertising on voters’ preferences, and that’s mixed at best,” Shaw said. “The country is so polarized politically and so siloed that the number of voters who are up for grabs in a given election major party competitions, very, very slender.”

The Harlingen media market includes over 400,000 households with TVs. The lower Rio Grande Valley has a population of over 1 million on the U.S. side of the border.

Gonzalez criticized the attacks as misrepresenting his stances.

“Not only was their ad full of lies, but their actor is a 9/11 conspiracist who insulted my colleague Dan Crenshaw, a decorated Navy Seal veteran — it’s amateur hour over there,” Gonzalez said in a statement.

LGBTQ+ rights groups have also criticized the Republican strategy tying Democrats to youth gender transition surgery as fear-mongering. Gender transition surgery is exceedingly rare, with most care for trans youth consisting of changing pronouns, adopting new names and hormone blockers to delay puberty. The Texas Legislature banned hormone blockers for minors last session.

Still, Republicans have leaned into the attacks. The NRCC said it was the top polling issue to convert voters from Gonzalez to Flores, performing better than issues related to the border or the economy.

Disclosure: University of Texas at Austin has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune’s journalism. Find a complete list of them here.

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Matthew Choi is a Washington correspondent for The Texas Tribune. He previously covered energy and climate policy at Politico, where he wrote the Morning Energy newsletter and covered campaign events as...