Republicans are aiming to keep Texas deep red in this year's midterm elections, similar to what happened two years ago when Donald Trump won the state by 12 points and Sen. Ted Cruz was reelected by a comfortable margin. This year, Trump is not on the ballot and Senator John Cornyn is facing a bruising primary battle against Attorney General Ken Paxton, while Democrat Senate candidate James Talarico is racking up huge fundraising totals from out of state. Against this more challenging backdrop, the Texas GOP is counting on another strong showing from Hispanic voters, who helped propel the GOP's strong results in 2024.
The first thing Republicans have done is recruit more Hispanic candidates to run in competitive districts, some with majority Hispanic populations. The GOP has six Hispanic candidates in Congressional races across the state, including Alexandra Del Moral Mealer in Houston's newly re-drawn 9th district. (Mealer is in a runoff against State Rep. Briscoe Cain.) But simply putting Hispanic candidates on the ballot isn't enough for Hispanic voters, according to Maria Espinoza, director of The Remembrance Project. "They're looking for a rule-of-law supporting candidate, who when he or she gets to Washington D.C., votes for the betterment of our families back home here in Texas," says Espinoza.
She believes Republicans can keep their momentum from 2024 in Texas by staying the course and focusing on the kitchen table issues that won in 2024. "It's about placing our families first," says Espinoza. "Can we put food on the table, can we make ends meet, are our children getting a good education?"
"But I believe the issue of mass deportations so that our families are safe is the biggest question for these candidates," she continues.
Despite the narrative pushed by Democrats and the legacy media that President Trump's immigration crackdown has hurt his support among Latino voters, Espinoza says just the opposite is true. "I've spent a lot of time in border counties, and Hispanics there will come up to me and tell me that we need to remove these illegal aliens from our communities," she tells KTRH. "So I do believe that people are supportive of President Trump's agenda...it's what we voted for him to do."
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