Texans elect the first Republican mayor of McAllen, a majority Latino border city, in 24 years
“Texans elected three new Republican mayors in heavily Latino cities over the weekend, building on the GOP's significant 2020 gains among Hispanic voters.
Most notably, the border city of McAllen, Texas, which is about 85% Latino, elected its first GOP mayor in 24 years. Javier Villalobos, a city commissioner and former chairman of the Hidalgo County GOP,
won about 200 more votes than Democrat Veronica Vela Whitacre in Saturday's runoff election. Republican mayoral candidates also won their races
in Fort Worth and
Arlington, Texas.”
“Democratic pollster David Shor has
found that Latino voters moved away from Biden and towards Trump when they were reminded of Democrats' positions on immigration policy. Shor and others have also found that Latinos who voted for Clinton in 2016 and Trump in 2020 were much more likely to have conservative views on crime, public safety, and policing. Some experts believe that the GOP's argument that Democratic policies hurt public safety -- and the left's calls to "defund the police" -- helped push many Latino voters to the GOP column last year. “