 Zaffirini has continued to defeat intraparty and interparty challengers in her Webb County-based district.In 1994, she won more than two thirds of the ballots cast in the general election against the Republican candidate, Fernando G. Cantu, Jr. (1944-2016), 71,029 (68.5 percent to 32,624 (31.5 percent).A native of Detroit, Michigan, Cantu was reared in Brownsville, Texas, and graduated from Texas A&I University in Kingsville.