in 2016. Clinton won Starr and Hidalgo counties by commanding margins — 60 and 40 percentage points, respectively. Biden won Starr County by five points and Hidalgo by 17.
The bluest of blue counties along the river, Zapata County, flipped to President Trump, who won 52.5 percent of the vote. It was the first time since Reconstruction that a Republican presidential candidate won Zapata County.
Zapata and Starr counties are tiny communities that may never sway an election. But the story of Trump’s performance and Biden’s backslide along the Texas border, experts say, shows the importance of cultivating deeper relationships with a diverse Latino population that continues to claim a growing and dominant share of the Texas electorate.
Alfonso Solis was an unemployed oil industry worker when Donald Trump ascended to the presidency and promised jobs. The 32-year-old soon found steady work in west Texas. He voted for Trump this year.
Alisa Rios-Carroll could not stop smiling after election workers rang a bell for her as she slipped her first ballot into the machine Tuesday. The recent college graduate skipped the 2016 election but said the pandemic and health care moved her to vote for Biden. . .
Their differences render a complex portrait of Latinos in the Lone Star state and the country at large. The various communities that comprise “Latinos” in Texas are diverse depending on their social class, assimilation, generation, education, immigration history and region. This brings a layer of nuance to political behavior that polling and models fail to capture, defies ideological strictures and demands meaningful engagement.
“They are conservative, liberal, indifferent and hybrid,” said Trinidad Gonzales, a professor of history and Mexican American studies at South Texas College. “Part of the injustice of living as a minority in the United States is not being afforded the same understanding of personhood and its complexities and contradictions that everyone else gets to live with.” . .
State Democrats said the party is doing a post-mortem to win back Latino voters. But some Latino political activists who have raised alarms about the changing political winds said the playbook has already been written — by them. The party just needs to listen.
The message: There is not one Latino vote. There are millions of Latinos who vote. And in Texas, it pays to resist the urge to oversimplify.
“Invest in Latinos everywhere. It’s complicated and not complicated,” said Cristina Tzintzún Ramirez, founder of the liberal Latino organization, Jolt. “Spend money on Latinos. Speak to them early and make sure you understand the regional and cultural differences.”'
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