More than half of Latino Texans voted for Trump

HOUSTON – The Houston Chronicle repors that despite growing up in a liberal Mexican American household in Houston’s Denver Harbor neighborhood, Tessie Kempenski hasn’t supported a Democrat in a presidential election since Jimmy Carter in 1976. For decades, the 67-year-old has been an outlier as a Republican-supporting Latina, but when she woke up to the news Wednesday that Donald Trump had regained the White House — with unprecedented levels of Latino support nationwide — she felt vindicated. “What people don’t understand is my hairdresser, my nail salon, my cleaners, they all voted for Trump because they’re small businesses and they’re taking a hit (economically),” she said as she ate breakfast at the East End staple Doña Maria on Wednesday. “(Democrats) take us for granted and assume we’re going to agree with them on everything.”

Latinos in Texas and across the country voted for President-elect Trump in striking numbers in the 2024 election, weakening the Democratic voting base and helping contribute to the Republican victory on Tuesday. Exit polling by The Washington Post indicates that 55% of Latino voters in Texas, who make up about a third of the state’s electorate, voted for Trump in this election — a 14-point swing from the 41% who voted for him in 2020. And though Vice President Kamala Harris won a slim majority of Latino voters across the country, her eight-point lead amongst Latinos nationwide is a double-digit drop from Biden’s in 2020. The results could indicate that Republicans made significant inroads into one of Democrats’ most reliable voting blocs. “The realignment continues, and it’s a phenomenon to behold,” said Orlando Sanchez, former Harris County Treasurer and president of the Texas Latino Conservatives.