RIO GRANDE CITY, Texas (AP) — Jorge Bazán’s family has lived on the U.S.-Mexico border for generations and voted for Democrats as long as he can remember.
He broke the family tradition this year and voted for Donald Trump because he doesn’t trust the Democratic Party’s economic policies.
“I think they forgot about the middle class,” said Bazán, who works for the utility company in Rio Grande City, seat of the most Hispanic county in the nation. “People are suffering right now. Everything’s very expensive.”
The South Texas region — stretching from San Antonio to the Rio Grande Valley — has long been a Democratic stronghold. A slide toward Trump in 2020 rattled Democrats in the predominately Hispanic area, where for decades Republicans seldom bothered to field candidates in local races. However, few Democrats expected the dramatic realignment that happened Tuesday, when Trump flipped several counties along the border including Hidalgo and Cameron, the two most populous counties in the Rio Grande Valley.
In Starr County, where Bazán lives, voters backed a Republican presidential candidate for the first time in a century. The predominantly Hispanic and working-class rural county, with a median household income of $36,000 that’s one of the lowest in the nation, gave Trump a 16 percentage-point victory margin over Vice President Kamala Harris. Roughly 2 million residents live at Texas’ southernmost point, among vast tracts of farmland and many state and federal agents patrolling the border.
Trump’s victories in the Rio Grande Valley starkly showed how working-class voters nationwide are shifting toward Republicans. That includes voters on the Texas border, where many Democrats long argued that Trump’s promised crackdowns on immigration would turn off voters.
“I was always a lifelong Democrat, but I decided to change to Republican with the political landscape that it is now,” said Luis Meza, a 32-year-old Starr County voter. “I felt that going Republican was the better choice, especially with the issues of immigration and everything like that that’s going on.”
Meza said that he was against Trump at first, but noticed too few changes under President Joe Biden to justify voting for Harris.
Biden won Hidalgo County by less than half the margin that Hillary Clinton did in 2016. Since then, Republicans have invested millions of dollars to persuade Hispanic and working-class voters soured by Democratic policies.
A similar scenario played out in the state’s three most competitive races in nearby counties. Republican Rep. Monica De La Cruz claimed a decisive victory in the 15th Congressional District. In the two other races, seasoned Democratic incumbents barely held on to their seats.
Democratic Rep. Henry Cuellar narrowly escaped defeat against a political newcomer in the most competitive race of his two-decade career. Cuellar, whose district includes Rio Grande City, was indicted this year on bribery and other charges for allegedly accepting $600,000 from companies in Mexico and Azerbaijan. His support for abortion restrictions makes him one of the most conservative Democrats in the House.
Democratic Rep. Vicente Gonzalez also narrowly escaped defeat by an opponent he comfortably beat two years ago.
Nationally, Black and Latino voters appeared slightly less likely to support Harris than they were to back Biden four years ago, according to AP VoteCast data. More than half of Hispanic voters supported Harris, but that was down slightly from the roughly 6 in 10 who backed Biden in 2020. Trump’s support among those groups appeared to rise slightly compared to 2020.
In McAllen, Texas, Jose Luis Borrego said that inflation and the promise of tougher border restrictions made him vote for a Republican presidential candidate for the first time.
“I wanted to see change and that’s why I did vote for Trump. I did vote red. I would not call myself a Republican” Borrego, 30, said. He said that he voted for Hillary Clinton and Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders in prior elections.
Borrego’s whole family voted Trump.
“We just (made) this choice, because we didn’t have another choice that we felt comfortable with,” he said.
Republican Sen. Ted Cruz said he had months of visits to the region during his campaign race against Democratic U.S. Rep. Colin Allred. In a victory speech on Election Day, Cruz said Hispanic voters are leaving the Democratic Party because of immigration.
“They are coming home to conservative values they never left. They understand something the liberal elites never will: There’s nothing progressive about open borders,” Cruz said. “There is nothing Latino about letting criminals roam free.”
Michael Mireles, the director of civil engagement for labor rights group La Unión del Pueblo Entero, believes that Democrats did not engage Hispanic voters enough about the issues that concern them.
“I think that folks on the Democratic side have been really slow to have those conversations with Latino households and families.” Mireles said in Hidalgo County after Election Day.
“We can’t wait for a big election to have those conversations. By that point, it’s too late.”
___ Lathan is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.
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This story has been amended to correct the spelling of Democratic Rep. Vicente Gonzalez’s first name.