Peter Schorsch
A tip for Gabriel Garcia: If you’re going to lie, try to be good at it.
Garcia, who is challenging Rep. Daniel Perez in the HD 116 Republican primary, has been trying to position himself as the more conservative candidate in the race.
His campaign page pitches him as an avid supporter of President Donald Trump, anti-abortion, pro-2nd Amendment, and a hard-liner on U.S.-Cuba relations.
All of that may be true, but Garcia’s zeal got ahead of him this week when he told the Miami Herald that he’s “a lifelong, loyal Republican, challenging an incumbent who has more resources than I do.”
Keywords: “Lifelong” and “loyal Republican.”
Either Garcia defines “lifelong” as two-and-a-half years, or that’s a flat out lie.
Voter registration records show Garcia switched his party affiliation from NPA to Republican on Nov. 30, 2017.
So, a candidate who touts himself as the Trumpiest in the race wasn’t even eligible to vote for Trump in the 2016 primary and — assuming he voted GOP down the ticket in 2018 — his track record as a “loyal Republican” encompasses a single election cycle.
There are many things Garcia could have gotten away with lying about. He has already proved it.
He has gotten away with obfuscating his intentions for running. He has managed to not spill the beans on why a political committee stocked with money raised by House Speaker José Oliva is backing his campaign. And he has built his campaign platform on labeling Perez, a Republican lawmaker whom Republican lawmakers picked to be House Speaker come 2024, as someone who doesn’t espouse Republican values.
All are questionable, but all have a slight tinge of believability — as in, one could believe he’s delusional enough to buy into his own legend.
But there’s no gray area here. The public record doesn’t lie. Garcia does.
