Overview

• Valentina Gomez, a Republican candidate for Texas’s 31st Congressional District in 2026, posted a video on X showing her using a flamethrower to burn a Quran while pledging to “end Islam in Texas.”
• The clip featured violent rhetoric, including her claim that “your daughters will be raped, and your sons beheaded, unless we stop Islam once and for all,” and it was later deleted or removed on some platforms.
• Gomez defended the video on X, writing that she stands by her actions and blaming the Quran for attacks including October 7 and the Kabul Abbey Gate bombing.
• Civil-rights advocates and commentators labeled the ad dangerous incitement, with CAIR and others warning of risks to Muslim communities in a state where Muslims comprise about one percent of the population.
• The episode follows prior stunts by Gomez, including burning LGBTQ+ books, staging a mock execution of a migrant, and disrupting a Muslim event at the Texas Capitol, as she campaigns without major GOP backing and with minimal fundraising reported.