Texas Politics--With Maybe Broader Implications

Rumblings continue along the Rio Grande:

Texas early voting data suggests Hispanic vote shift to the GOP continues

'It will be Hispanics who keep Texas red,' says Ivan Andarza, spokesman for Hispanic Republicans of Texas

Early voting analysis in two primarily Hispanic counties along the Texas - Mexico border—counties that have long voted Dem—suggests that Republicans are outpacing Democrats in voter enthusiasm and perhaps turnout. Hispanic politicians in Texas believe this could be part of a broader trend. This trend of Hispanic and Tejano voters in support of Republican candidates is especially notable in the Rio Grande Valley. What a surprise!

The reasons behind this ongoing shift revolve heavily around border and crime issues, as well as larger cultural issues. This type of trend may also lend itself to the ongoing remake of the GOP in the wake of Trump:

A report from the political consulting company Ryan Data & Research shows that Republicans are 76% of the way to matching 2018 turnout in Cameron County, Texas along the southern border with Mexico with eight days remaining until Election Day. In Hidalgo County, which also sits on the border with Mexico, turnout is 65% of the way to matching 2018.

On the Democrat side, the party is only 59% of the way to matching 2018 turnout in Cameron County and 47% of the way in Hidalgo County. 

... 

"I’ve spent a lot of time in Cameron, Hidalgo, and Willacy and all the counties in the valley, and there has just been a very different vibe with Republican voters," Republican candidate for Texas Land Commissioner Ben Armenta told Fox News. "I meet with folks, and a high percentage of them are new, and they’re just engaged differently than they’ve been in the past."

Sounds like very good news to me. Especially because …

Armenta added that there is a "new" and "different energy" with Republican voters in the predominantly Hispanic Rio Grande Valley, where he believes that the Republican message of family values, border security and cracking down on crime is resonating with voters. 

Go figure, hey? Years of preaching Libertarianism didn’t do the trick.

"It’s about the issues that are impacting their home," Armenta said. "The issues that are impacting their pocket book, their schools, the crime in their neighborhoods. When as a Republican candidate, I’m talking to them and I just ask them even in the last 13 months of the Biden administration, ‘Are things better for you?’ The answer is, ‘No.’"

Armenta explained that Hispanic voters in South Texas are very much concerned about illegal immigration in their neighborhoods and support Republican efforts to secure the southern border.

Yep. They see the flow of drugs and criminal gangs across the border, and they don’t like it. That also shows them what the comparative values of conservatives v. liberals are, and they increasingly don’t like what they see on the liberal side:

Former Texas Supreme Court Justice Eva Guzman, who is running in the Republican primary for Texas attorney general in next week’s election, explained to Fox News that Hispanic values are more in line with conservatism than the liberal orthodoxy of the Democratic Party. 

... 

"I'm Hispanic," Guzman continued. "My parents had a third grade education. They put seven kids through college. They came here legally and upheld the rule of law. Hispanics don't want an AOC socialist woke agenda. They want an agenda that provides opportunity. An agenda where they can see their children grow up and go from a factory like me to the Texas Supreme Court. It's just common sense. Hispanics want a country where freedom reigns and more opportunity is available no matter where you come from. AOC and the woke liberals don't offer that. They offer a socialist agenda that wants to keep people in their place. We don't want that as Hispanics; we reject it."

Democrats in Texas have "ignored" Hispanic voters and "taken the Hispanic community for granted," Republican judicial candidate for the Texas Thirteenth District Court of Appeals Aaron Peña told Fox News.

There’s a lot more at the link. These additional paragraphs jumped out:

"We feel it directly," Peña  said. "Our schools are being overcrowded because we're required to take all persons, not necessarily all citizens. Our hospitals are overburdened. Our health care is in jeopardy because many of the people who come are carrying illnesses, and they're released into the community."

Both Andarza and Peña explained that Democratic Party’s support of abortion has also alienated Hispanic voters who are largely Catholic and pro-life.

"Most of our people are Catholic, and they are pious Catholics," Peña said. "They follow their traditions, and one of those traditions is respecting life, and the Democratic Party no longer tolerates a pro-life Democrat."

Maybe Rick Scott, who’s running the GOP Senatorial campaign, is on to something. Maybe he thinks it’s not just Texas Hispanics who are looking for change—that what’s happening in Texas is related to what happened in Virginia’s recent election and, God help us, what happened in the San Francisco school board recall election. Here is his 11 step program to rescue America:

Here are the 11 points in Scott’s “rescue” plan. Each is explained in detail at RescueAmerica.com.

• Education: Our kids will say the pledge of allegiance, salute the Flag, learn that America is a great country, and choose the school that best fits them.

• Color Blind Equality: Government will never again ask American citizens to disclose their race, ethnicity, or skin color on any government form.

• Safety and Crime: The soft-on-crime days of coddling criminal behavior will end. We will re-fund and respect the police because, they, not the criminals, are the good guys.

• Immigration: We will secure our border, finish building the wall, and name it after President Donald Trump.

• Growth/Economy: We will grow America’s economy, starve Washington’s economy, and stop Socialism.

• Government Reform and Debt: We will eliminate all federal programs that can be done locally, and enact term limits for federal bureaucrats and Congress.

• Fair Fraud-Free Elections: We will protect the integrity of American Democracy and stop left-wing efforts to rig elections.

• Family: We will protect, defend, and promote the American Family at all costs.

• Gender, Life, Science: Men are men, women are women, and unborn babies are babies. We believe in science. 

• Religious Liberty and Big Tech: Americans will be free to welcome God into all aspects of our lives. 

• America First: We are Americans, not globalists.

Nope, that’s not the kind of stuff that appeals to NeverTrumps or Establishment types, but maybe it can win some elections. Scott apparently thinks that an activist platform can bring in more votes than just sitting back while Zhou screws up.