Two House Democrats are vowing to make a federal return politically painful if voters send Maureen Galindo to Congress this fall. They say her repeated calls to jail “American Zionists” and an online post advocating violence cross a line, and they plan to force daily expulsion votes to block her from serving. The fight has exposed a party split over how to handle antisemitism and whether accountability is fast enough.
Maureen Galindo, a sex therapist running in a San Antonio-area district, has doubled down on a campaign idea to convert a local ICE processing center into what she called a “prison for American Zionists and former ICE officers for human trafficking.” Those comments, and a social post that linked Zionism broadly to sexual crimes and calls for castration, set off alarm bells across the political spectrum. Republicans who drew the district say the change was meant to make the seat more competitive, but the controversy now dominates the race.
Two Democratic members of Congress have gone public with a blunt approach. “I will vote to expel her and force a vote to expel her every single day,” Moskowitz told Fox News Digital in an interview. The rhetoric is sharp and unmistakable: some Democrats want to use the process of Congress itself to bar a colleague who they say promotes hate and violence.
The episode has pushed party leaders to take a stance. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries called Galindo’s remarks “disqualifying” and predicted voters will reject her at the ballot box. That message is meant to signal that overt antisemitism will not be tolerated, at least in party statements, while intra-party tensions bubble beneath the surface.
Galindo is in a May 26 runoff after leading the Democratic primary. Her campaign has accused her runoff opponent, Johnny Garcia, a local sheriff’s deputy, of ties to “Zionist terrorism and trafficking,” heightening the personal and ugly nature of the contest. This language has kept the story alive and sharpened calls from across the aisle for swift condemnation.
Her campaign also posted a statement that read, “When Maureen gets into Congress, she’ll write legislation so that all Zionism and support of Zionism is undoubtedly Anti-Semitic, since it’s Zionists harming the Semites.” That tweet-sized declaration has been cited by critics as evidence the candidate embraces a narrative that conflates support for Israel with criminal behavior against Jews.
Democrats pushing for expulsion votes argue the party has to draw a line. Representative Josh Gottheimer warned that “Both parties: There should be zero tolerance for antisemitic-driven hatred that we’re seeing right now.” His appeal is broad but aimed at fellow Democrats who, he says, have been slow to call out the most extreme rhetoric.
One recurring complaint from inside the party is that fringe voices have shifted from the margins toward a place of uncomfortable acceptance. “The Democratic Party can’t get to power because we’ve expanded our tent so big to include this sort of insane behavior,” Moskowitz said, arguing that tolerating extreme views undermines the party’s credibility with mainstream voters.
Another thread running through the debate is the spotlight on public figures who have made inflammatory comments about Israel and Jews. Critics point to streamers and commentators who have praised or minimized violence and who use dehumanizing language, and some Democrats are now being asked why they allowed that to happen without a clear rebuke.
Names like Hasan Piker have been raised as examples of the broader problem, and some Democrats continue to associate with controversial figures despite public backlash. Republicans say this shows a double standard, while some Democrats insist they are wrestling with the issue and trying to balance free speech concerns with moral lines.
Across the board, the episode has forced a moment of choice: either the party acts decisively to root out antisemitic rhetoric or it risks appearing tolerant of it. “No. We are not doing enough,” Moskowitz said when asked whether Democrats are confronting antisemitism within their ranks, and that blunt answer sums up why this fight has moved from social posts to daily threats on the House floor.
Graduate Student, wife, engaged political and legal writer.