One of the handful of hotly contested races for the Texas House of Representatives is taking place in the Rio Grande Valley, where incumbent freshman Republican State Representative Janie Lopez is being challenged by Democrat Jonathan Gracia in House District 37. The district covers portions of Cameron County, including South Padre Island and Harlingen, as well as all of Willacy County.
Gracia, a former Justice of the Peace who ran unsuccessfully for State Representative in the Democratic Party primary in a neighboring district in 2022, is an attorney who practices in the areas of criminal defense and family law.
While his campaign website does not reference his positions on any social issues, Gracia earned the financial support of one of the nation’s most prominent abortion activists. On August 27, Gracia received a $1,000 donation from Naomi Aberly, a Boston, Massachusetts resident who is a prolific donor to left-wing political causes.
According to her biography on the website of the liberal advocacy organization Demos, where she serves as a board member, “Naomi served as Board Chair of Planned Parenthood Federation of America from 2017 – 2019 and co-chaired Planned Parenthood’s $250 million Second Century Campaign. She is a former member of the board of the Planned Parenthood Action Fund and former Chair of the Planned Parenthood Federal PAC. She currently serves on the board of the ACLU Foundation of Massachusetts, the Texas Future Project, the Fairness Project, the Voter Formation Project and the executive committee of Invest to Elect Boston. Naomi is a member and supporter of the Planned Parenthood Leadership Council, the Women Donors Network, Way to Win and the Movement Voter Project.”
Gracia’s work as a criminal defense attorney and his support from left-wing organizations has been the focus of some of the advertising in the race.
“Jonathan Gracia is looking out for criminals, not us. He’s personally defended 2,000 individuals charged with crimes, including criminals smuggling deadly drugs across our southern border. Gracia is even supported by radical groups that want to defund our police and release violent criminals early, back on our streets. Criminals can rest easy with Jonathan Gracia in power. Us? Not so much,” said one ad, which was paid for by the AFC Victory Fund, a school choice advocacy organization.
In July, Gracia paid $5,000 to Professional Campaign Services, a San Antonio-based political consulting firm owned by former Bexar County Democratic Party Chairman Manuel Media. In August, authorities seized 65 cell phones and 41 laptops from Medina’s home as part of an investigation into potential voter fraud.
Gracia is no stranger to controversy in his campaigns. During his unsuccessful campaign for State Representative in the 2022 Democratic Primary, Brownsville-based blogger Juan Montoya wrote a scathing post highlighting several issues involving Gracia.
Montoya’s post, which included a headline describing Gracia as “arrogant” and “entitled”, accused Gracia of frequently being unavailable to handle the duties of Justice of the Peace. The post goes on to discuss an incident, including a copy of the narrative from the Brownsville police department, involving an intoxicated woman who accompanied Gracia to a hotel room and then fled.
A subsequent post by Montoya discussed how Gracia had sent a registered sex offender who worked as an investigator for his law office to serve as his representative at the vote count at the Cameron County elections office. In his post, Montoya reported that the sex offender serving as a representative for Gracia “was overheard name dropping and saying he had “special influences” at all levels of politics” at the vote count.
Erin Gamez defeated Gracia in the 2022 Democratic Primary for Texas House District 38.
The allegations involving Gracia that Montoya reported on in the 2022 Democratic Primary resurfaced in Gracia’s 2024 Democratic Primary race for House District 37.
Ruben Cortez, who faced Gracia in the Democratic Runoff for Texas House District 37, took to Facebook to “share the receipts” about Gracia’s controversies.
In a May 14 post, Cortez linked to a Dropbox folder that contained various screenshots and documents.
“Leadership is about believing in something bigger than yourself and having a plan to get there. My opponent has neither, so he’s trying to drag this campaign into the mud. I’m not going to talk about his weird issues with women and drug dealers, but I will share the receipts,” wrote Cortez.
State Representative Janie Lopez, the incumbent Republican who currently represents House District 37, has been endorsed by Governor Greg Abbott and groups such as the National Border Patrol Council, the Combined Law Enforcement Association of Texas, the Texas Municipal Police Association, Texans for Lawsuit Reform, and the Texas Oil and Gas Association in her campaign for re-election.
