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Gonzalez Campaign Spending Shows Disney Trips, Spouse Travel After Rival Attack
ReGonzalez Campaign Spending Shows Disney Trips, Spouse Travel After Rival Attack
Rep. Vicente Gonzalez accused Republican Mayra Flores of living the good life on donor money, but his own campaign records show nearly $20,000 in spending on trips with his wife, including Disney World, a five-star UAE hotel, and a Michelin-starred restaurant in Zurich.
Democratic Rep. Vicente Gonzalez of Texas accused Republican rival Mayra Flores of living the good life on donor money, but his own campaign records reveal nearly $20,000 in spending on international and domestic trips with his wife, including a visit to Disney World, a five-star hotel stay in the United Arab Emirates, and a Michelin-starred restaurant bill in Zurich.
Gonzalez made the jab at Flores in October 2025, months after posting photos on social media documenting his own two-day Disney World trip with his wife and several associates in April. Federal campaign finance records show his campaign reported a combined $1,122.76 in payments to Walt Disney Resorts on March 24, 2025, and May 27, 2025, around the same time as the April 26 trip.
The Disney payments and photos are part of a broader travel and hospitality spending trail from Gonzalez's campaign. His campaign reported thousands of dollars in expenses at upscale restaurants and hotels from Washington and Texas to California and Europe, alongside spending on multiple overseas trips during which his wife accompanied or appeared to accompany him, according to posts Gonzalez shared on social media.
During a 2024 trip to the UAE that utilized campaign funds and coincided with social media posts in the same location, more than $13,000 in airfare and hotel expenses were spent. Gonzalez described photos from the trip as an «after campaign break,» and his posts showed him with his wife doing sightseeing activities and one photo from a bed inside a top-floor luxury hotel room next to the beach.
Gonzalez, a fifth-term Democrat, is fighting to hold his South Texas seat against Republican Eric Flores in November after the GOP candidate defeated Mayra Flores and a crowded Republican field earlier this year. The race has drawn national attention as both parties battle for the district, and Gonzalez enters the final stretch with a significant campaign cash advantage.
In October 2025, Gonzalez shared a photo of Mayra Flores at Dallas Love Field Airport with two young family members, a Disney World bag, and stuffed animals. He captioned the photo «living the good life on donor's resources again» and cited a report that found payments to Disney World from her campaign around the same time as the photos.
Federal campaign finance rules do not prohibit campaigns from paying travel expenses simply because a candidate's spouse or children accompany them. The Federal Election Commission allows campaign funds to cover travel for candidates, their spouses, and minor children when the trip is directly related to campaign activity or the candidate's official responsibilities as a federal officeholder.
Campaign funds cannot, however, be used to pay for personal vacations or other family expenses that would have existed regardless of the candidate's campaign or official duties. When a trip mixes campaign or official business with personal activities, the campaign must be reimbursed for the costs attributable to the personal portion.
Gonzalez's campaign manager, Alex Philley, told Fox News Digital in a statement that «every dollar this campaign spends is legal and publicly disclosed, and these reports come straight from our own FEC filings.» Philley added that «the spending South Texans are worried about is their own on higher costs driven by Trump's agenda that Eric Flores would proudly rubber-stamp.»
Gonzalez's FEC filings identify two $561.38 Disney payments, one from March 2025 and another from May 2025, only as «travel expenses,» leaving unclear from the public disclosures what campaign or official activity the expenditures were connected to. When asked specifically about this trip, Philley said it was tied to «a very important Financial Services trip» with Rep. French Hill, R-Ark., the Republican chairman of the U.S. House Committee on Financial Services, of which Gonzalez is a member.
Philley said the campaign's spending on international trips where Gonzalez's wife was present had been tied to official business as well, including a visit with the Pope, although he did not address each trip separately when asked about them.
For example, Gonzalez traveled with his wife to Morocco in mid-2019 under the Mutual Educational and Cultural Exchange Act, which allows members of Congress to accept travel from foreign governments for approved cultural exchanges. Campaigns are allowed to pay for their spouses to join them, but only if the spouse is performing bona fide official responsibilities.
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