Inside the Democratic reckoning in South Texas

MCALLEN, Texas—The Democratic dam finally broke in South Texas in 2024.

Hillary Clinton won Hidalgo County by 40 points in 2016, as Hispanic voters remained reliably Democratic. But in subsequent elections, these voters steadily started drifting toward the Republican Party. In 2020, Joe Biden again carried the county, this time by only 17 points. Then, last year, Donald Trump narrowly won Hidalgo, marking the first time a Republican presidential candidate carried the county since 1972 and only the fifth time since 1928.

After years of steady shifts toward the Republican Party, Democrats along the Rio Grande Valley face a reckoning as the party reels from historic shifts of Hispanic voters toward President Trump in the 2024 election.

Nowhere is this more true than in Hidalgo County, and Democrats need to chart their path in the region as they try to maintain relevancy. Their success could decide control of Congress.

“It goes back to messaging. It 100 percent goes back to messaging,” Hidalgo County Democratic Party Chairman Richard Gonzales told National Journal.

Gonzales said the national party’s focus on Trump and threats to democracy turned off voters in the area, while Republicans focused on cost of living and prices.

“The message just didn’t resonate,” he added.

Gonzales won election as the country party chairman in 2022 with a vision to guide the local apparatus into the future. He said the party was beleaguered by arcane ways of politicking, and he thought it existential for Hidalgo Democrats to adopt modern methods. But there was little daylight between the local and national parties during the presidential cycle, making it difficult for Democrats to separate themselves.

The lesson has not been lost on Gonzales.

“Unless we totally agree with what the national party is putting out, we’re going to create our own message down here, and we are going to stick to that message,” he said.

It’s not necessarily all doom and gloom for Democrats in South Texas. Former Rep. Colin Allred carried three of four counties in the Lower Rio Grande Valley during his 2024 Senate run, including Hidalgo, as he outperformed former Vice President Kamala Harris by 8 points in the region.

Allred, who’s running for Senate again, touted his connection to the region to explain his strong showing. His mother is from Brownsville, and he spent significant time there growing up.

“In all these races, what we’re going to have to do is have candidates who can separate themselves a bit from the party,” Allred told National Journal in an interview in Pharr. He said Democrats need to be “identified for who they are and not just what the party is.”

One of those candidates is Bobby Pulido. Democrats are coalescing around Pulido in the 15th Congressional District, which is home to Hidalgo. Pulido, a Grammy-award winning Tejano music star, is universally known in the region.

He says Democrats haven’t really lost voters in the region.

“I disagree when they say South Texas is going red,” Pulido told National Journal from his home in Edinburg.

But despite his stardom, Pulido says his name recognition may not be a total strength. He’s a newcomer to politics, and he has to convince people that he can hold his own in the arena.

“People know me as a singer, and I have to now get them to hear me speak about issues,” he said.

“Deer hunting is part of my life. We’ve done that since we were little,” Pulido said. “I harvested my first deer at the age of seven.”

It’s not the type of language common among national Democrats. But the Democrats down here, Pulido included, aren’t trying to appease the party’s left flank.

“There’s a lot of factions inside the progressive movement that maybe hate this lifestyle, and they’ll criticize it,” he said.

Many Democrats in the region feel they need to reestablish a moderate Democratic Party in order to regain prominence in South Texas. Rep. Henry Cuellar, who represents Laredo and is the only pro-life Democrat in Congress, says the Hispanic community has natural conservative leanings. Faith plays a large role in that. Gonzales calls it a “family-based culture” in South Texas.

Faith “is everything,” Pulido said, “and if they paint you as godless then people will navigate to the other party that they feel is more aligned with their faith.”

Though the people may differ, the issues here aren’t that different from those being addressed by the national party apparatus: costs, health care, immigration. But, Gonzales says, Democrats need to be more aggressive in delivering that message.

“You cannot fight Trump and the MAGA regime by playing politically correct politics,” he said.

Gonzales will stand for reelection again next year, and he’s expected to win. He said this will be his final term as chair of the party. He has faced challenges during his time as chair, especially within the last year. Coming off the 2024 losses, factional division has roiled the local apparatus. Some have accused Gonzales of major spending without authorization from the executive committee. He’s carried on, however, and worked to increase fundraising and grassroots involvement.

As he looks toward the future, Gonzales said he’s working to be more inclusive of a diverse array of thoughts and develop more buy-in among local folk. That might require doing things differently.

“I got elected to take this party to the next level,” he said. “If I stayed at the status quo, then I wouldn’t be doing the best job I could for this county, for this party.”