Permanent Realignment: Republicans Make Huge Gains in Rio Grande Valley

As the Texas primary election is on Tuesday, the Washington Post came out with a report that Republicans have made tremendous gains with voters, especially Hispanics, in the Rio Grande Valley, as one consultant called it a permanent realignment.

Since 2016, the Post noted that the “Republican uprisings” have been happening across the country, as everyday voters are shifting to the Republican party, especially in the Rio Grande Valley, as people are becoming frustrated with one-party Democrat rule in Washington, DC.

The report noted that “For as long as anyone alive can remember, South Texas has been a conservative Democratic stronghold” that are in favor of gun, fossil fuels, and anti-abortion. However, the Post pointed out a turning point in 2020, that started in 2016, when former President Donald Trump was elected. In 2020, Starr County, Texas voter 47 percent in favor of Trump, which was up, 19 percent from 2016 and reportedly saw about 6,000 more Republican voters that showed up to vote, as the Democrat numbers stayed the same.

Starr County Judge Eloy Vera, a senior Democrat on the U.S.-Mexican border and is running for reelection, said he remembers when you were able to count the number of Republicans on one hand, noting that ties are changing in southern Texas. Vera said, “It’s our fault,” and that “[Democrats] never gave them [those leaving for the Republican party] an opportunity to really participate in the party.”

Craig Murphy, a Republican campaign consultant who works in South Texas, said it “really feels like 1980 with Reagan, where you just suddenly saw huge areas go in a different direction… I would call this a realignment. I would say it is permanent.”

Reportedly, the National Republicans are hoping that having another strong year in South Texas would further “undermine the longtime Democratic belief that demographic change in the nation,” since Hispanic Democratic support fell by nine points statewide in Texas from 2016 to 2020, according to Catalist, a Democrat data firm.

As the Democrats are reportedly trying to start back up their “in-person” canvassing at the state and national level that they largely abandoned since the start of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020, the Republicans never closed their doors, especially in the Rio Grande Valley, where they have heavily invested their time and money, and have opened up three “Hispanic Community Centers” in South Texas.

In response, Mike Carrera, a Democrat campaign consultant, said, “What Republicans have done is they are being smart about recruiting,” noting that “At the end of the day, I just think that people have choices now. I think Republicans are going to just keep pressing.”

Jacob Bliss is a reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow him on Twitter.