Things are changing.”ĭemocrats still hold advantages in South Texas - decades of incumbency, a culture of residents voting Democratic, and more moderate candidates who are less vulnerable to GOP attacks on the left and more critical of President Joe Biden when his approval ratings remain low and inflation is still high.īut Republican Rep. In the Valley, you’re born two things: a Catholic and a Democrat. But, he says, “I think this area has been taken for granted a lot. He’s doesn’t see Republicans sweeping races in the Rio Grande Valley, home to roughly 1.5 million people. “This is the first time we’ve ever had this many competitive races where the Democrats are like, ‘What are we going to do?’” said Republican Carlos Cascos, a onetime border Democrat who switched parties and later served as Abbott’s first secretary of state. Still, the rare sight of contested races on the Texas border has widened cracks in an important Democratic stronghold two years after former President Donald Trump’s significant gains with Hispanic voters during the 2020 election caused both parties to scramble in unexpected ways. But it is another way Republicans are putting plenty at stake on the Texas border, given that they are already refocusing the final sprint of the 2022 midterms on portraying the 1,200-mile boundary as rife with escalating danger and disorder as record number of migrants enter from Mexico.īorder Democrats say dramatic moves to bus and fly migrants across the country will backfire with voters, but also acknowledge they can no longer coast into office. The task - like Democrat Beto O’Rourke ’s underdog campaign to unseat Abbott - is an uphill climb. 8 after years of writing off the region that is overwhelmingly controlled by Democrats.

Greg Abbott, kicking off a rally in the Texas border city of Harlingen.Īs Democrats embark on another October blitz in pursuit of flipping America’s biggest red state, Republicans are taking a swing of their own: making a play for the mostly Hispanic southern border on Nov. “We are going to turn the Rio Grande Valley red,” said Republican Gov. HARLINGEN, Texas (AP) - Just weeks before Election Day in Texas, once again there is big money, new signs of shifting voters and bold predictions of an upset that will turn heads across the U.S.īut this time, it’s coming from Republicans.

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