Why Democrats Are Losing Texas Latinos

[TexasTowelie]

In an interview with Javier Villalobos in early June, Fox Business host Stuart Varney presented his guest with a riddle. Villalobos, a Republican, had just won the mayoral election in McAllen, the Texas border town at the end of the last great curve of the Rio Grande. Varney, barely containing his glee, wanted the politician to help viewers understand the victory. “Your honor,” Varney addressed Villalobos, “you are right on the border, eighty-five percent of the voters in your county are Hispanic, you are a Republican, and you won. Can you explain that? Because not many Americans expect a Hispanic electorate to go for a Republican mayor!”

Villalobos promptly set Varney straight. “I think a lot of people know, or should know, that Hispanics generally are very conservative.” His triumph, he explained, wasn’t stunning; he had simply met his voters where they were, with a “conservative agenda” of low taxes, limited government spending, and pro-business policies. Satisfied, Varney moved on to other questions familiar to South Texans who make national news. What did Villalobos think of the border wall? What about “illegal entry” of migrants? This part of the interview should have been routine. But Varney had apparently not learned the name of the town where Villalobos had been elected, mistakenly (and repeatedly) referring to McAllen as “McLaren.”

The error was par for the course. South Texas lately has become an object of political fascination for pundits, some of whom have not taken the time to understand even the most basic facts about the region. Until recently, officials from McAllen typically found themselves on the national radar only when they welcomed visiting national politicians. But Villalobos’s win—albeit in a race in which his party affiliation did not appear alongside his name on the ballot and fewer than 10,000 of the city’s 73,000 registered voters went to the polls—was noteworthy for one reason. It seemed to confirm what Democrats had spent the past seven months denying: they have a deep problem in South Texas—and therefore in statewide races as well.

Last year, McAllen experienced the biggest shift in party vote share, toward Donald Trump, of any large city in the country save for Laredo, 150 miles to the northwest. In both border towns, Trump improved on his 2016 results by more than 23 points. Many predominantly Hispanic neighborhoods in Texas’s major cities, such as San Antonio’s Prospect Hill, also experienced double-digit shifts toward the incumbent president, though they ultimately stayed Democratic. But no area fled further into the GOP camp than South Texas, where 18 percent of the state’s Hispanic population lives.

Read more: https://www.texasmonthly.com/news-politics/democrats-losing-texas-latinos-trump/

[atreides1]

1. Being a non-white Hispanic isn't a good thing!!!

From the article:

"Many Hispanic South Texans shared something else with non-Hispanic white rural Texans: their racial identity. Hispanic residents of our state are much more likely to identify as white than Hispanic residents of cities elsewhere in the country.

"While Hispanic South Texans are proud of their Mexican heritage, many do not consider themselves to be “people of color” at all."

Conservatives and the attitude that being "white" is the way to go...like Larry Elder!!!

[USAFRetired_Liberal]

2. Yes that is what I noticed

I live in a town right outside San Antonio and a lot of Hispanics I run into seem to try and mimic being white…it’s like they want to be accepted by White people as one them

[UncleTomsEvilBrother]

3. Listen to African Americans on this one

African Americans have been saying for years that many non-Black immigrants, and even immigrants from Africa and the Caribbean in some cases, go out of their way to appear "non-Black" or at least "non-African American," and that often bleeds over into politics.

DACA is obviously a very humane and just policy to pursue, but it is not going to render the political benefits that Democrats think it will. By their second generation, many of these immigrants from South America espouse their white privilege and follow the voting beliefs of their priests and pastors.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

4. The Texas party is working on our outreach

I have listened to two presentations from the state party on this issue. Hispanic voters are not a monolith and in 2020 many Hispanic voters were concerned about the economy and their employment. The presentations were interesting and I was surprised to see videos of large car rallies for TFG down in the Valley

[lark]

5. Many Hispanics are Catholic and approve of men contollling womens bodies.

They are strongly anti-abortion and that's how they vote. We need them to be more informed on actual R policies, but too many are only focused on religion and abortion. We have got to do a better job of communicating with this group.

[carpetbagger]

6. Latino Protestants are more antiabortion than Latino Catholics.

And a lot more republican. I've not seen abortion ever animate Latino people politically like with Anglo white people. Their Christianity isn't so monolithic. They face the same choice white southerners faced in the 90s... Do you want to be better off or do you want to be white? I agree that our messaging is implicit and reactive, not a good combo.