‘Grubgate’: Texas congressional candidate caught stealing food pics and passing them off as her own

Mayra Flores, a former Republican congresswoman from Texas, has recently been accused of using food pictures from other people's social media posts and reposting them without credit.

As People reported, Flores has posted multiple photos to Instagram and X within the past year, highlighting how she loves the "rancho life" with her family.

In an Instagram post from August 2022, Flores posted a picture with the caption, "I love the Rancho life surrounded by my beautiful family. Love your family and make lots of beautiful memories."

In another post from January 2023, Flores posted a picture of food being made on a gas stove. The post was captioned, "As a proud Latina who knows how to cook, homemade Mexican food tastes better from a gas stove." 

The captions and lack of photo credit suggest that Flores took the images herself and cooked or consumed the food pictured in them.

However, X users have recently accused Flores of stealing the photos from other people on social media. X user @robertdownen_ posted screenshots comparing the photos Flores posted to other social media posts. According to the screenshots, the first photo Flores used was posted to Facebook in 2019 by an account called Comida de Rancho. The second photo Flores posted seemed to have been from a 2021 Facebook post by Izabal Magazine. @robertdownen_'s post has received over 1.7 million views and 12,000 likes by Tuesday. 

Very bizarre: Apparently former congresswoman and current U.S. House candidate Mayra Flores has for years been posting stolen food pics https://t.co/WAdMXSYatY pic.twitter.com/ldUTTlBhYD

— Robert Downen (@RobertDownen_) January 3, 2024

One X user left a comment under @robertdownen_'s post saying, "This is the kind of scandal I'm up for, Rob."

Earlier this week, Flores posted another photo to social media of a plate described as "gorditas de masa." She captioned her post, "The Ranch life with family is the best."

Users were again quick to notice that the photo seemed to have been taken from a 2022 post on the Visit Guyana Facebook page.

Here’s @MayraFlores_TX trying to convince people that she’s living the high life and making dinner over an open fire at the ranch. Only problem is: this picture was stolen from a Guyanese facebook page. Why would you lie, Mayra? pic.twitter.com/zd4mIcJQwg

— Ben Anderson (@ben_the_dem) January 1, 2024

After the news went viral, the Texas Tribune released a statement from Flores saying it "wasn't her intention to mislead."

In the statement, Flores says, "The photo simply reminded me of my upbringing in Mexico and my childhood. I deleted the tweet to clear up any confusion." 

The Daily Dot reached out to Flores's representatives via email. 

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