Brownsville, Texas
—
Daisy Alcazar is a one-issue voter this midterm yr: stopping Donald Trump.
“I don’t think we are going to survive if we don’t speak up this election,” Alcazar stated. “We are on fire. We are being burned down to the floor. Our businesses. Our economy.”
Alcazar and her husband personal La Pale, a conventional Mexican ice cream and fruit bar store. They have a storefront in Brownsville and promote by way of an area grocery chain. “Our life savings are on the line,” she stated.
Walk-in gross sales are down 50%. First, it was inflation’s toll on working households.
“The splurge money,” she stated. “We are a luxury item right now.”
Then, the concern issue. Alcazar was one in all a number of small-business house owners who instructed NCS many Hispanic households are afraid to exit for ice cream, or burgers or espresso — particularly if the enterprise is Latino-owned — resulting from fears of being detained by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
“We are a target now,” Alcazar stated. “And it doesn’t matter if you are documented or undocumented, legal or illegal. … People are afraid to use public transportation because ICE enforcement is literally walking up and down the streets. We cannot normalize this.”
We visited Alcazar and South Texas as a part of our “All Over the Map” venture, an effort to trace elections and main problem debates by way of the eyes of experiences of on a regular basis Americans. That there is good motive to go to speaks volumes about President Donald Trump’s midterm political troubles. Alcazar lives in the thirty fourth Congressional District, which was amongst the large targets when, at Trump’s request, Texas Republicans drew new US House maps for the 2026 midterms.
The thirty fourth is one in all simply 13 districts nationwide that Trump carried in 2024 at the similar time voters elected a Democrat to the House. Trump received the thirty fourth by a bit of greater than 4 factors in 2024, whereas Democratic Rep. Vicente Gonzalez received by lower than 3 factors. Had the new strains been in place then, Trump would have received by 10 factors.
Yet what Texas Republicans thought could be a secure new GOP district — and a 2026 pickup — is a tossup. If Republicans can’t win in a Texas district they drew to their benefit, it’s a secure wager the Democrats will win the House and alter the trajectory of the Trump presidency.
Four of the 5 Democratic-held seats targeted by Texas Republicans are majority Latino beneath the new maps. But Trump’s standing amongst Latinos has fallen dramatically nationwide since the begin of his second time period, outpacing his drop in approval general.
Louis Sorola is aware of lots of Latinos who voted for Trump. He predicts a 2026 backlash.
“Because things have changed in the last year,” stated Sorola, a Brownsville legal professional who forged his first vote greater than 40 years in the past for Ronald Reagan however has largely supported Democrats in current elections. “We didn’t have the economy in the shape that it is. We didn’t have ICE acting like a Gestapo police force. We didn’t have the tariffs hurting us. We didn’t have a lot of things. We didn’t have the Epstein files in front of us.”
Brownsville is dwelling to the southernmost crossing at the US-Mexico border. Illegal crossings are method down — a promise saved that might be an amazing political asset for the president and his celebration in the midterms, significantly in a area with 1000’s of immigration and border brokers and their households. But the immigration problem is as an alternative, at the second anyway, a transparent legal responsibility.
“There is a whole argument to make about border security,” stated Milton Reyna, a three-time Trump voter who owns a blue-collar bar in Corpus Christi. But Reyna added this: “Being Hispanic, I think that there does need to be some empathy.”
Corpus Christi is the large change on the new map.
The present thirty fourth consists of elements of Hidalgo County alongside the border. But the 2026 map shifts Hidalgo to a neighboring district and provides a giant chunk of Nueces County — the Corpus Christi space.
As a consequence, the new thirty fourth has about 63,000 fewer voting-age Hispanic residents, and Nueces leans extra Republican than Hidalgo.
“A lot of our customers tend to be, tend to lean further right,” Reyna stated. “So, when Trump was elected, we got a surge.”
Reyna plans to vote Republican in November however stated he would skip the March 3 primaries.
“I think everybody’s a bit exhausted talking about politics,” Reyna stated. “I tend to turn the TV off a little bit more than I used to.”
A handful of Reyna’s mates and colleagues have been readily available for our interview. A fast chat with them round the bar was telling.
Four of the 5 have been Hispanic. Four voted for Trump.
“I feel like he’s creating a lot of chaos,” stated Ramon Herrera, the lone Kamala Harris voter in the group. “It’s a little bit too extreme.”
All 4 of the Trump voters stated the president was largely doing an excellent job.
“What he ran on, he’s addressed,” stated Mike Martinez, a Reyna enterprise associate. “He’s been working on it.”
Three of the 4, although, voiced at the least some reservations about how he will get issues achieved.
“Probably 80% positive to 20% negative,” stated Westly Belcher, who owns just a few native small companies.
Richard Contreras stated Trump ought to assert “better control” over ICE.
“Go after the true criminals,” he stated. “Leave the abuelos and abuelitas alone.”
None of the 5 voiced curiosity in the March major and nobody raised their hand when requested whether or not Trump’s endorsement may affect their desirous about the major.
“He’s lost a little juice just because of the methods, the way he is doing it,” stated Contreras, a Corpus Christi actual property agent.
Two of the Trump voters have been open to voting for a Democrat in November.
Contreras stated divided authorities may pressure some compromise in Washington. “Something to think about,” he stated. But Contreras additionally stated he had a good early impression of GOP candidate Eric Flores — a fellow veteran.
Celeste Montemayor, the bar supervisor, sounded most open.
“I do think some things need to change,” Montemayor stated. “I just think what we are doing may not be working.”
Trump’s 2024 victory over Harris got here with elevated Latino help. He received 55% of the Texas Hispanic vote in 2024, up from 41% in 2020 and 37% in 2016.
Rural Kingsville was a Trump stronghold. It’s amongst the locations to look at as the midterm yr performs out.
Steve Martinez is affiliate pastor at Kingsway Family Church, the place the congregation is 80% Hispanic. Martinez says he tries to keep away from names and political events when requested for voting recommendation.
“I always say biblically what I stand for,” Martinez stated. “Congress is a big thing right now. I ask a question: What are your views on homosexuality? What are your views on abortion? You know, that is what is important to me.”
Martinez acknowledged that after Sunday companies of late, there are questions on how one can sq. immigration enforcement techniques with Christian values.
“It is hard, yes, to see some of these families separated and to see all that is going on,” Martnez stated. “But at the same time, I tell people the law is the law, and we have to abide by it.”
Martinez believes most Christian conservatives will keep loyal to Trump and the GOP.
Outside the church, although, is a reminder that kitchen-table points typically drive voting selections: A lengthy double line of automobiles lined up for a church meals financial institution. Some arrived 4 hours earlier than it opened.
“The need is great,” Martinez stated. Some can’t discover jobs. Others are on mounted incomes that don’t hold tempo with inflation. Some are giant households.”
“People are struggling right now financially,” Martinez stated.
Alcazar, the Brownsville ice cream store proprietor, stated she finds it more and more obscure Latinos nonetheless loyal to Trump and Republicans.
“I don’t know if they thought they were excluded from the brown color that we have,” she stated. “I just can’t see how they translate that.”
More necessary to her, although, is persuading extra Latinos in her neighborhood who assume politics doesn’t matter to grow to be midterm voters.
“Our voice matters,” she stated. “We can make a change. This is the year that the Latino community can show up for their people.”