Note from the Editor: This article was originally written by Mauricio Davila on October 29, 2026 and translated to English by Magali Roibon.
In South Texas, the Democrats and Republicans have been looking to win the Latino vote with two celebrated rallies last week at Rio Grande Valley and in Corpus Christi, respectively. The rallies are in response to a new effort to compete for the congressional districts of the region where Latinos are the grand majority of the population and mainly voted for Donald Trump and the Republicans in 2024.
Despite this, the Latino voters’ perspectives have changed on everything, about topics like immigration and the cost of living under the Trump administration. It is because of this that Democrats have started to gain support in the Latino population again – refocusing the attention of Republicans to those voters. A few days before the midterm elections, Democrats gain territory and Republicans have to defend what they won in 2024.
In Weslaco, Texas, Democrats closed their campaigns October 25th with a rally that brought together some of their most well-known candidates: James Talarico, Gina Hinojosa and Bobby Pulido. According to the press release of Voto Latino, an organization of city participation and mobilization of Latino voters, the party chose the Rio Grande Valley because “the road toward a Democrat majority in the House of Representatives passed directly through South Texas.”
“The Valley is the epicenter of the Latino vote,” Secretary of Press Release for the Voto Latino Ana Fuentes said. “Both parties know it and the Valley has demonstrated that they can vote. Closing our campaign here is our way of saying that our community matters. Our message is simple: your vote is your power,” Fuentes said to UT students planning on voting in South Texas.
Two days after, the Republican party celebrated their campaign closure in Corpus Christi on October 27th with local names such as the Delegate Monica de La Cruz, the House of Representatives Candidate Eric Flores, the Senator Candidate Ken Paxton and the President Donald Trump. The president, who had a rally programmed in Lubbock the same day, added Corpus Christi to his agenda a couple of days before.
The Texan en Español attempted to contact the office of each Republican candidate in South Texas that was present at the rally and with the Republican party of Nueces county and the Republican party of Texas to solicit comments on the event of October 27th and the messages directed at Latino voters, but did not receive a response. Despite this the Texan en Español found the transcription of the discourse of President Trump on Factba.se, archive of presidential discourse presented by the news organization Roll Call.
“Under our [the Republicans] leadership, the port of Corpus Christi has just registered the most active months in all their history. And of course, the price of gas is decreasing,” President Trump said in his discourse as one of the achievements of Republicans in South Texas. “But you all have to go out to vote. We have to conserve it. You all have to vote for Ken [Paxton] and for all the Republican candidates, from top to bottom, this week.”
Jovana Gomez, a UT student who is voting for the first time this year, grew up in Corpus Christi and saw the rally as a sign for attention towards Latinos in the region, although the Republicans have not quite expressed it directly like that. “I find it interesting to see the Republicans putting so much attention on South Texas, especially since we have a very large Hispanic population,” Gomez said.
“It shows that Latino voters aren’t all the same,” Gomez said. “So growing up there [Corpus Christi], I’ve seen how people with similar backgrounds can have such different beliefs.”
The Latino vote remains in competition between the two parties in this region of Texas before the close of the midterm elections.
“Democrats and Republicans need to recognize that they can’t just assume that they have a Latino vote,” Gomez said.
