Texas Turns: How Latinos in South Texas Are Turning Their Backs on Trump

TVS News AI, editorially supervised, presents Texas Turns: How Latinos in South Texas Are Turning Their Backs on Trump.

South Texas voted for Trump in 2024. Now, with the deportations under his administration, the mood is shifting among local Latino business owners. Reporter Paola Ramos traveled through South Texas for her first report with the Spanish daily EL PAIS and spoke with those affected – what she finds there is a small-scale shift that could carry much bigger political weight.

Picture a Latino business owner in South Texas: contracts, employees, a community around them. When part of the workforce is now deported, the whole structure is thrown off balance. This is not an abstract Washington issue – it lands directly in local businesses.

At the center of the report is Benny Meléndez. He is a promoter – someone who mobilizes politically and campaigns for candidates. He has worked for the Republicans until now; now he wants to campaign for the Democrats. One single man, but a signal that carries weight.

What Ramos experiences in South Texas

Ramos travels through South Texas and speaks with people directly affected by deportations of workers. It is about Latino business owners whose operations suffer under immigration policy, and about promoters who are politically rethinking their allegiances. The report paints a picture of a community caught between economic pressure and political disappointment.

The Meléndez case stands for a larger pattern: those who, as promoters, backed Republican candidates for years are now switching sides – because the deportations threaten the very basis of their own work. This is more than a change of opinion. It is a break with a political home.

Why South Texas is politically so important

South Texas was considered a safe bet for Republicans for years – especially among Hispanic voters. If business owners and promoters from this group now drift toward the Democrats, the consequences reach beyond the region. In midterm elections, in future presidential elections, in the question of how stable the Republican base in the U.S. South actually still is.

The report is also journalistically remarkable: Ramos is writing for EL PAIS for the first time. For her debut she picks a topic that directly touches the political dynamics in the U.S. – and at the same time makes the lived reality of many Latinos in the U.S. visible.

What the report leaves open

A report with individual voices is no substitute for a poll. How widespread the mood shift really is cannot be deduced from Meléndez's story alone. What becomes clear, though, is this: when a longtime Republican promoter like him switches sides, that is more than a personal decision. It is an early indicator of how strongly the Trump coalition in South Texas still holds.