Trump did surprisingly well in Hispanic-majority counties in South Texas
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
You are now subscribed
Your newsletter sign-up was successful
President Trump is projected to win Texas' 38 electoral votes, and analysts are taking a close look at the southern part of the state, where he performed better than expected in counties with large Hispanic populations.
Journalist Megan K. Stack tweeted that her "biggest surprise of the night" was Trump receiving 47 percent of the vote in Starr County. This is a "rural, poor, and almost entirely Latino" county, which was a "dependable Democratic stronghold." In 2016, Hillary Clinton won Starr County, with 79 percent of the vote compared to Trump's 19 percent.
In Zapata County, where 84 percent of estimated votes have been counted, Trump is winning with 52.5 percent of the vote. Houston Chronicle reporter Zach Despart tweeted that the county, which Clinton won in 2016 by 33 points, is 95 percent Hispanic, and it was "shaping up to be a very poor performance for [Democratic presidential nominee Joe] Biden in heavily Democratic South Texas."
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
In South Florida, Trump appears to have been buoyed by Cuban American voters, and Sawyer Hackett, a senior adviser to native Texan and former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julián Castro, noted that there's "not a lot of Cubans in South Texas. Latinos aren't monolithic, but these numbers signal a much broader problem for Democrats than national origin."
Farther west in Arizona, Biden is ahead in Maricopa County, where Phoenix is located. The population there is about one-third Hispanic, and The Atlantic's Derek Thompson tweeted that if Biden does win there, it's "an important indicator that A, there is no singular 'Latino vote,' B, we should get some fascinating gender/education/generation/geographical origin breakdowns of the 2020 Latino vote."
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
-
The ‘ravenous’ demand for Cornish mineralsUnder the Radar Growing need for critical minerals to power tech has intensified ‘appetite’ for lithium, which could be a ‘huge boon’ for local economy
-
Why are election experts taking Trump’s midterm threats seriously?IN THE SPOTLIGHT As the president muses about polling place deployments and a centralized electoral system aimed at one-party control, lawmakers are taking this administration at its word
-
‘Restaurateurs have become millionaires’Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
-
Ex-South Korean leader gets life sentence for insurrectionSpeed Read South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol was sentenced to life in prison over his declaration of martial law in 2024
-
Rubio boosts Orbán ahead of Hungary electionSpeed Read Far-right nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orbán is facing a tough re-election fight after many years in power
-
Key Bangladesh election returns old guard to powerSpeed Read The Bangladesh Nationalist Party claimed a decisive victory
-
Epstein files topple law CEO, roil UK governmentSpeed Read Peter Mandelson, Britain’s former ambassador to the US, is caught up in the scandal
-
Iran and US prepare to meet after skirmishesSpeed Read The incident comes amid heightened tensions in the Middle East
-
EU and India clinch trade pact amid US tariff warSpeed Read The agreement will slash tariffs on most goods over the next decade
-
Israel retrieves final hostage’s body from GazaSpeed Read The 24-year-old police officer was killed during the initial Hamas attack
-
China’s Xi targets top general in growing purgeSpeed Read Zhang Youxia is being investigated over ‘grave violations’ of the law
