By Mary Chastain
For the past 12 years or more Democrats and the left have been trying to make people believe they were on the verge of flipping Texas "blue." They may have been making gains in the cities of Houston, Dallas, and Austin, but not in the place most think would vote Democrat – South Texas.
You would think – and history shows – that most political leaders along the Rio Grande River Valley belonged to the Democrat Party. And, I wouldn’t blame you if you assumed that most there identified more with the far-left.So kudos to The New York Times for casting a spotlight on the Hispanic Republicans in South Texas, who took everyone by surprise this past November.
Author Jennifer Medina wrote that when you enter the Hidalgo County Republican Party’s office, you see a bulletin board with the local leaders, including Hilda Garza DeShazo, Mayra Flores, and Adrienne Pena-Garza:
Hispanic Republicans, especially women, have become political rock stars in South Texas after voters in the Rio Grande Valley shocked analysts in both parties by swinging sharply toward the G.O.P. in November.
In McAllen, Texas, one of the region’s largest cities, Mr. Trump received nearly double the number of votes he did four years earlier; and in the Rio Grande Valley over all, President Biden won by just 15% – a steep slide from Hillary Clinton’s 39% margin in 2016.
That conservative surge – and the liberal decline – has buoyed the Republican Party’s hopes about its ability to draw Hispanic voters into what has long been an overwhelmingly white political coalition. They are challenging Democrats in heavily Latino regions all across the country.
Now party officials, including Texas' Gov. Greg Abbott, are flocking to the Rio Grande Valley in a kind of pilgrimage – they are eager to meet the people who helped Republicans rapidly gain ground in a longtime Democrat stronghold.
In McAllen, Texas, one of the region’s largest cities, Mr. Trump received nearly double the number of votes he did four years earlier; and in the Rio Grande Valley over all, President Biden won by just 15% – a steep slide from Hillary Clinton’s 39% margin in 2016.
That conservative surge – and the liberal decline – has buoyed the Republican Party’s hopes about its ability to draw Hispanic voters into what has long been an overwhelmingly white political coalition. They are challenging Democrats in heavily Latino regions all across the country.
Now party officials, including Texas' Gov. Greg Abbott, are flocking to the Rio Grande Valley in a kind of pilgrimage – they are eager to meet the people who helped Republicans rapidly gain ground in a longtime Democrat stronghold.
For instance, Adrienne Pena-Garza (above in the New York Times, and below right with father Aaron,) chairs the local Hidalgo County Republican Party, but “grew up the daughter of a Democratic state legislator.”
Her father – a former Democrat State Legislator – switched parties during a Dec. 14th, 2010 press conference (below.) And after her father switched parties in 2010, Ms. Pena-Garza soon followed, arguing that Democrats had veered too far to the left, particularly on issues like abortion and gun control.
“Politics down here did scare me, because you didn’t go against the grain,” she said.“If someone’s going to tell you: ‘Oh, you’re brown, you have to be Democrat,’ or ‘Oh, you’re female, you have to be Democrat’ – who are they to tell me who I should vote for, and who I shouldn’t?”
Ms. Pena-Garza said she was called a coconut – brown on the outside, white on the inside – and a self-hating Latino, labels that have begun to recede only in recent years as she meets more Hispanic Republicans who, like her, embrace policies that they view as helping small business owners and supporting their religious beliefs.
Declared Pena-Garza, “You can’t shame me or bully me into voting for a party just because that’s the way it’s always been.”
Females seemed to bolster the move to the Republican Party:
Women who staunchly oppose abortion voted for the first time; wives of Border Patrol agents felt convinced the Trump administration was firmly on their side; mothers picked up on the enthusiasm for Republicans from friends they knew through church or their children’s school.
Democrats, and maybe Republicans, would think the enthusiasm was only with former President Donald Trump. But evidence shows the people also consider local and Congressional elections just as important.Monica De La Cruz-Hernandez nearly defeated Texas’s 15th Congressional District incumbent Vicente Gonzalez in November.
She only lost by three points:
“That's just what you do,” she said, adding that while she could not recall ever having voted for a Democrat for president, she hesitated to voice her political views publicly, fearing that it could hurt her insurance business.
“But I never understood the Democratic values or message being one for me,” she said. “And I am convinced that people here have conservative values. That is really who the majority is.”
During her last campaign, Ms. De La Cruz-Hernandez relied heavily on local efforts, drawing little attention from the national Republican Party in a race she lost by just three points. Now she is focusing early on building support from donors in Washington.
Already, the Democrat Congressional Campaign Committee has named Mr. Gonzalez a “Frontline” member, an indication that it views him as one of the most endangered House Democrats. And in March, the National Republican Congressional Committee put Mr. Gonzalez on its 2022 “Exit List” and began airing ads against him.
“But I never understood the Democratic values or message being one for me,” she said. “And I am convinced that people here have conservative values. That is really who the majority is.”
During her last campaign, Ms. De La Cruz-Hernandez relied heavily on local efforts, drawing little attention from the national Republican Party in a race she lost by just three points. Now she is focusing early on building support from donors in Washington.
Already, the Democrat Congressional Campaign Committee has named Mr. Gonzalez a “Frontline” member, an indication that it views him as one of the most endangered House Democrats. And in March, the National Republican Congressional Committee put Mr. Gonzalez on its 2022 “Exit List” and began airing ads against him.
De La Cruz-Hernandez plans to run against Gonzalez again, but who knows what will happen if officials reshape the district.However, it seems Gonzalez isn’t hard-left:
Like other Democrats along the Texas border, Mr. Gonzalez has tried to distance himself from national Democrats; this year he asked Mr. Biden to rescind an executive order to temporarily stop new fracking on federal lands.
Last month, he traveled to the border with the Problem Solvers Caucus, a bipartisan congressional group, and he has urged top Biden Administration officials to come to the region.
“We’re conservative Democrats down here,” he said. “We support a lot of international trade, we’re an agricultural community, we’re Catholic, we work in the oil fields, we’re avid gun collectors.”
Last month, he traveled to the border with the Problem Solvers Caucus, a bipartisan congressional group, and he has urged top Biden Administration officials to come to the region.
“We’re conservative Democrats down here,” he said. “We support a lot of international trade, we’re an agricultural community, we’re Catholic, we work in the oil fields, we’re avid gun collectors.”
Hispanics Across America
I googled “Hispanic Republicans”, and found Latino Trump supporters in Florida still support him:
“We are Republican, but what we really like is what Trump promotes,” Laureano Chileuitt, the group’s leader, said.
A physician, Chileuitt practiced neurosurgery in his native Colombia until he came to the U.S. in 2001.
“That’s why we consider him our caudillo,” Chileuitt said, using the Spanish word for strongman. While the term has a negative connotation in the U.S., it doesn’t for Chileuitt. “It just means he’s ‘the leader... We are anti-globalization and anti-communism.”
A physician, Chileuitt practiced neurosurgery in his native Colombia until he came to the U.S. in 2001.
“That’s why we consider him our caudillo,” Chileuitt said, using the Spanish word for strongman. While the term has a negative connotation in the U.S., it doesn’t for Chileuitt. “It just means he’s ‘the leader... We are anti-globalization and anti-communism.”
NBC News spoke to Geraldo L. Cadava, who authored the book "The Hispanic Republican: The Shaping of an American Political Identity, from Nixon to Trump."Cadava wrote the book to explain why Hispanics lean toward Republicans – you know, because God forbid non-white people don’t toe the line:
It is instructive, Cadava believes, to acknowledge the GOP’s decades-long efforts to cultivate Hispanics. From 1972 to 1992, he posits, the Republican Party was more hospitable to Latinos than it was from 1992 to 2012. And the loyalty created in the past has proved enduring.
Because some Latinos have been voting Republican their entire lives, they will not necessarily abandon their party – even amid criticism of Trump for espousing xenophobia and racism.
“Decades ago, Hispanic Republicans voted for the man, like Reagan or Bush, not the party,” Cadava said.
“Now that script has flipped. Hispanic Republicans support the party, which they believe in, even if they don’t love the man.
"Either way, the GOP retains a crucial bloc of support from what will be the largest ethnic minority group in the 2020 election.”
Because some Latinos have been voting Republican their entire lives, they will not necessarily abandon their party – even amid criticism of Trump for espousing xenophobia and racism.
“Decades ago, Hispanic Republicans voted for the man, like Reagan or Bush, not the party,” Cadava said.
“Now that script has flipped. Hispanic Republicans support the party, which they believe in, even if they don’t love the man.
"Either way, the GOP retains a crucial bloc of support from what will be the largest ethnic minority group in the 2020 election.”
Mary Chastain writes for Legal Insurrection, The Hill, and The Washington Examiner, where her favorite thing to do is take on the media. She saw its bias against the right when she was a socialist.
