Many Hispanic voters in Texas’ historically blue Rio Grande Valley are fed up with Democratic Party rule and are looking to flip the area red Tuesday, locals told the Daily Caller.
The Valley, which borders northern Mexico and the Rio Grande River, is largely Hispanic. Many voters in the area are lifelong Democrats. Skyrocketing costs in one of the country’s poorest areas, a growing dissatisfaction with the Democratic party’s stance on culture war issues and a more energetic GOP, however, are all factors that may be pushing them across the aisle.
The five main counties that compose the Rio Grande Valley — Starr, Hidalgo, Willacy, Zapata and Cameron — all went heavily blue for Hillary Clinton in 2016.
But in 2020, Trump gained major ground in all five counties, even winning Zapata, the first time the county went red in 100 years, Zapata County Republican Chair Jennifer Thatcher told the Daily Caller.
“What they want is change,” Thatcher said of Zapata County voters. “Everybody’s tired of the same thing, you know, same empty promises and nothing getting done.”
In 2016, Clinton defeated Trump in Zapata, which is 94 percent Hispanic, with 65 percent of the vote to Trump’s 32 percent. But in 2020, Trump edged Biden 53-47, picking up 1,000 voters in the 12,000 person county.
That trend played out across the Rio Grande Valley. Trump picked up 69,493 votes across the five Valley counties from 2016 to 2020. Local Republicans believe he could make even bigger gains this time around.
“His support is just really remarkable,” Toni Trevino, Starr County’s Republican Chair, told the Daily Caller. It’s “off the charts, more so than in ‘16 and ‘20.”
While some voters in the border counties cited Trump’s immigration policies, it’s the economy and cost of living that seems to be by far the biggest reason for the shift.
“Things are getting very expensive,” Jorge Bazan, a Starr County voter who described himself as a “lifelong Democrat,” told the Caller. “To go to a restaurant, it’s expensive. Expensive groceries.”
Bazan, who works for a water company, says a foot of pipe used to cost his company $8 in 2020. Now, he says, it costs $21.
This time, he says he’s voting for Trump. “The economy was better when he was in office.”
Many Starr County Democrats voted blue for their local candidates but revealed to Trevino that they also voted for Trump, she told the Caller.
Another local organizer, Col. Ross Barrera, heard the same thing.
“A lot of the people, they were hinting to me, ‘Mr. Barrera, we’re voting Democrat locally, but at the national level, Trump.’ These are people who barely speak English. They’re first generation Mexican-Americans,” he told the Caller.
Former Democrats told Barrera, Thatcher and Trevino they were voting Trump because they’re hurting financially.
Voters often mention prices for groceries and other staples. “The main issue for these people is, of course, bringing money home” Barrera said.
The Rio Grande valley is one of the poorest areas in the U.S. The area has a 27 percent family poverty rate, according to the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. That number is well over double the national rate of 11.5 percent.
“To have there be such a tangible difference in the cost of living and in how much it costs us to feed and clothe our family and at the same time to have less job opportunities — or if we do have job opportunities, they’re lower-paying jobs — that is what I mean. People here, they saw the difference,” Trevino told the Caller.
“They saw the four years of Donald Trump, when their lives were better, and then they’ve seen the last four years when their lives have been not as good for their family.”
Despite the hardships, local Hispanic voters are not looking for handouts, Barrera said.
“The reason they come to America, not because they want abortions. They come because of jobs. These people, they want to work. They don’t want a giveaway. But the Democrats [say], “Oh, we’ll give you this. We’ll give you that. No, no, no, give me a job,” Barrera said.
While the economy appears to be the key catalyst in the valley’s rightward shift, other issues on the Democrat platform like the funding of foreign wars, border security, sex-changes for children and abortion (the area is heavily Catholic) are contributing to the party exodus as well.
For instance, Bazan mentioned abortion as a key issue for his rejection of Democrats, and county officials heard similar stories from others.
Still, the economy appears to be the main reason these voters are walking away.
“The economy, illegal immigration, inflation and oil, are the four key issues for voters in Starr County,” Barrera told the Caller. “Notice, I didn’t say anything about the transgender issue. Nothing about abortion. These are the issues that hit people hard. People want to work. They don’t want [the Democratic Party’s] ways.”
Flores illustrated her constituents’ opposition to Democrats by outlining their party platform.
“When the government leaves our border wide open, allowing 13,099 known murderers and 15,811 known [convicted sex offenders] into our country, people want a change. When the government advances legislation using tax dollars to pay for sex-changes for children, people want a change. When groceries become unaffordable and quality of life drops dramatically, people want a change. When we have crisis after crisis in our communities being ignored by our government while they’re sending hundreds of billions of dollars overseas, people want a change.”
The region has been reliably blue for decades. In 2020, The New York Times listed Texas as a toss-up, claiming Joe Biden could be the first Democrat to win the state since Jimmy Carter in 1976, citing “the arrival of a formidable multiracial Democratic coalition in the country’s largest red state.”
The outlet specifically cited the Hispanic vote and the Valley’s local Democratic candidates, who often run unopposed. That lack of opposition led to what former Republican Texas Rep. Mayra Flores called “single-party rule.”
“So many voters believe the only election of consequence is the primary election. Most voters, even those with conservative beliefs, vote in the Democrat primaries so they can have a say in who their locally-elected officials are,” Flores told the Caller. “It’s only recent that Republicans have been considered competitive in this area, and the investment in campaigning and outreach has been a priority.”
In the past it was frowned upon socially to not vote for Democrats, Barrera told the Caller.
“You couldn’t say you were a Republican because they would paint you as, ‘Oh, you want to be white. Oh, you wanna be rich. You’re in the wrong party.’” Barrera said.
But the tide is evidently turning.
In Barrera’s Starr County, Trump went from earning 19 percent of the vote in 2016 to 47 percent in 2020, narrowly losing to Biden despite picking up over 6,000 votes. Biden received 123 less votes in 2020 than Clinton did in 2016.
“I think it is almost certain that he will over-perform from 2020, and it is entirely possible that he sweeps the entire Rio Grande Valley,” Flores told the Caller.
The trend is playing out nationally too, as Trump is outperforming Kamala Harris with Hispanic male voters, according to an October AP/NORC poll.
Harris has struggled with Hispanic voters compared to her Democratic predecessors.
Hillary Clinton carried the Hispanic vote by 40 points and Biden did so by around 30. Harris led Trump by 12 points with registered Hispanic voters, according to an Economist/YouGov poll from late October.
Trevino and other party officials cited an uptick in the intensity and cohesion of their organizing efforts as part of why Trump has made these strides.
The area, which has one of the lowest turnout rates in the country, has experienced rapid growth in turnout in the last two presidential elections.
“Almost 12 percent of the early votes cast so far this year are from voters who have not voted in the last four elections,” Flores said. “The enthusiasm is high, but, at least in South Texas, seems to be one-sided.”
“Latino voters have been abandoned by the Democratic party. After decades of one-party rule, being taken for granted, and only seeing things get worse, they want a change.”
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