CNN —

Newly elected Republican Congresswoman Mayra Flores spread conspiracies on social media that the January 6 riot at the US Capitol was caused by members of the far-left group Antifa and repeatedly used a hashtag of the QAnon conspiracy theory in tweets that have since been removed.

CNN’s KFile reviewed deleted tweets on Flores’ campaign Twitter account, which previously had a different handle as her personal account before she ran for office.

Flores won the special election for Texas’ 34th Congressional District last week, giving Republicans an additional seat in the House of Representatives. She beat a field of four other candidates – two Republicans and two Democrats – in the race to succeed former Democratic Rep. Filemon Vela. Vela vacated his South Texas seat in March to join a law and lobbying firm in Washington. Flores will serve out the remainder of Vela’s term and is running for a full term in November.

Before running for office, Flores was a local Republican activist who tweeted under the handle “LaRepublicana86,” where she spread false claims about election fraud and immediately began suggesting on January 6, 2021, that the Capitol riot was caused by Antifa and “infiltrators.”

In one deleted tweet from January 7, 2021, Flores retweeted a claim that DC police had let crowds go to the Capitol and Antifa was among the crowd. “DC police let them through the gates! This was a set up! Antifa is definitely among this crowd!!!,” read the tweet from conservative...

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