Republicans are in full-out panic mode over their plunging support with Hispanic voters after losing a special election in a ruby-red Texas district over the weekend.

On Saturday, a Democrat posted a 14-point victory in a Fort Worth-based state senate district President Donald Trump had won by 17 points in 2024, a staggering swing that was powered by significant shifts across the district’s Hispanic areas.

It’s the clearest sign yet that the GOP’s newfound coalition that propelled Trump’s return to the White House may be short-lived. Many Republicans are warning the party needs to change course on immigration, focus on bread-and-butter economic issues and start pouring money into competitive races — or risk getting stomped in November.

Polling already showed that Republicans were rapidly losing support from Hispanic voters. But the electoral results were a confirmation of that drop.

“It should be an eye-opener to all of us that we all need to pick up the pace,” U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzales, a Republican from a majority-Hispanic district in South Texas, said in an interview. “The candidate has to do their part, the party has to do their part. And then those of us in the arena, we have to do our part to help them as well.”

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) told reporters Tuesday that the election was a “very concerning outcome.” Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick posted on X that the results should be a “wake-up call for Republicans across Texas. Our voters cannot take anything for granted.” Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said “a swing of this magnitude is not something that can be dismissed.”

Taylor Rehmet, the Democrat who flipped the state Senate seat over the weekend, made huge gains with Hispanic voters amid national pushback to the Trump administration’s aggressive immigration enforcement tactics and widespread economic frustration across demographic groups.

Ahead of the election, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott — an immigration hardliner who bused migrants to Democratic-led cities during the Biden administration — said the White House needed to “recalibrate” on its immigration crackdowns following the shooting of Alex Pretti by an immigration officer in Minneapolis.

“That imagery coming out of Minnesota in the last few days has had a huge impact on not only Hispanic voters, but swing voters, independents in Texas and around the country,” said Texas GOP consultant Brendan Steinhauser. “What’s transpired there has definitely led to a bit of a political backlash.”

As Republicans panic, Democrats are feeling a renewed jolt of optimism after they swept statewide races last year in Virginia and New Jersey. They believe they found a winning formula with Rehmet, whose working-class biography as a union leader, Air Force veteran and Lockheed Martin machinist resonated with voters, along with his narrow focus on local issues like maintaining public school funding.

Tory Gavito, president of Democratic donor network Way to Win, said she received excited texts from several major donors over the weekend after the win. “Knowing it’s a wave year, this just adds a little bit of more wind in our sails,” she said. “It’s not just a question around Texas, it’s a question around Texas and Mississippi and Alabama and what does this mean for lots of places.”

Texas Republicans have the most to worry about of any in their party about a major Hispanic snapback towards Democrats.

Hispanics are now the largest ethnic group in Texas, making up 40 percent of the population. Trump carried Latinos in the state in 2024, exit polls showed, a massive swing from earlier elections, and Republicans had been making especially strong gains with rural, more conservative Hispanic voters in the Rio Grande Valley. But as Texas Democrats look to win a U.S. Senate election for the first time since 1988, they’re eyeing an opportunity to pull those voters back in.

“They are leaving in droves and going in the opposite direction,” said Javier Palomarez, president and CEO of the U.S. Hispanic Business Council. “This is a warning sign.”

And Texas Republicans also banked on retaining at least some of their newfound Hispanic support when they redrew their Congressional map last year, creating several majority-Hispanic districts that Trump would have carried by double digits last year. That includes rejiggering district lines for two top GOP targets, Democratic Reps. Henry Cuellar and Vicente Gonzalez, as well as a third district outside San Antonio.

“They’ve banged three of these five new Republican seats on a demographic that Democrats were never able to turn out for 30-40 years, ” said GOP consultant and Trump critic Mike Madrid, referring to young, Hispanic male voters. But now, Trump’s hardline immigration policies have “angered and upset them.”

Samuel Benson and Alex Gangitano contributed to this report.

D.C. U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro appeared to walk back a previous threat to arrest anyone who brings a gun to Washington amid an uproar from Second Amendment groups.

The backtrack came after Pirro’s initial comments sparked fierce criticism from GOP members of Congress and gun rights advocates. It’s the latest in a series of statements from the administration that have rankled many in the party’s pro-Second Amendment base.

“I don’t care if you have a license in another district, and I don’t care if you’re a law-abiding gun owner somewhere else — you bring a gun into this district, count on going to jail, and hope you get the gun back” Pirro said during a Monday appearance on Fox News, where she previously hosted the show “Justice with Judge Jeanine.”

But less than 24 hours later, Pirro attempted to reframe her earlier comments, writing in a social media post that she is “a proud supporter of the Second Amendment.”

“Washington, D.C. law requires handguns be licensed in the District with the Metropolitan Police Department to be carried into our community,” she wrote in a Tuesday morning post on X. “We are focused on individuals who are unlawfully carrying guns and will continue building on that momentum to keep our communities safe.”

She also referenced the response in a video posted to her social media page, acknowledging that “some people are concerned about something I said yesterday” before further clarifying her position.

The conservative National Association for Gun Rights swiftly came out in opposition to Pirro’s stance, calling her remarks “unacceptable and intolerable comments by a sitting US attorney.”

Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie, one of the administration’s most frequent critics in the House GOP Conference, also denounced Pirro, writing on social media: “Why is a ‘conservative’ judge threatening to arrest gun owners?” Reps. Greg Steube (R-Fla.), Chip Roy (R-Texas) and Andrew Clyde (R-Ga.) criticized the U.S. attorney, too, and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said “Second Amendment rights are not extinguished just because an American visits DC.”

Washington does not recognize concealed carry permits from other states, and local law requires all firearms in the district to be registered with local police.

John Commerford, executive director of the National Rifle Association’s legislative arm, said Pirro’s remarks “highlight the need for Congress to pass H.R. 38, the National Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act.” That bill, introduced last year by Rep. Richard Hudson (R-N.C.), would allow anyone with a state-issued concealed carry license to carry a firearm in any other state.

“Law-abiding citizens’ right to self-defense should not end simply because they crossed a state line or entered Washington, D.C.,” Commerford said in a statement to Blue Light News.

The backlash to Pirro’s comments comes as the Trump administration faces uproar from Second Amendment advocates for its rhetoric following the killing of U.S. citizen Alex Pretti by federal immigration enforcement officers in Minneapolis.

Just days after the fatal shooting, President Donald Trump criticized Pretti for carrying a firearm, saying: “I don’t like that he had a gun.”

Other members of the administration also disparaged Pretti, with White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt contending that carrying a weapon raises “the assumption of risk” during interactions with law enforcement and FBI Director Kash Patel saying “you cannot bring a firearm loaded with multiple magazines to any sort of protest that you want.”

Those remarks triggered fury from Second Amendment groups like the NRA, which called federal prosecutor Bill Essayli’s response to the shooting “dangerous and wrong.” The rhetoric has also fueled concern that the administration could be harming the GOP’s chances of defending its slim majority in Congress in this fall’s midterm elections.

The Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general is investigating use of force by ICE agents, according to a letter sent to the watchdog by congressional Democrats.

The probe comes as the Trump administration faces intense scrutiny over its nationwide immigration crackdown, which has at times turned violent in recent weeks, sparking concern from a bipartisan group of lawmakers.

The letter, sent Monday to DHS Inspector General Joseph Cuffari, cites the fatal shootings of U.S. citizens Renee Good and Alex Pretti by federal agents in Minneapolis last month. The letter says the inspector general launched a review on Jan. 8 of the tactics undertaken by ICE and Customs and Border Protection, urging the watchdog to speed up the timeline of the probe.

“Given the urgency of this situation — with communities facing severe, and sometimes fatal, harm from ICE’s tactics on American streets every day — we request that your office conduct this review expeditiously and share any preliminary findings with Congress and the public on an expedited basis,” the Democrats wrote, according to a copy of the letter reviewed by Blue Light News.

Democratic Massachusetts Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey — who led the letter along with Reps. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.), Dan Goldman (D-N.Y.) and Lou Correa (D-Calif.) — first requested the probe in June.

Thirty-six of their colleagues across the House and Senate signed on to the letter, which was first reported by The New York Times.

The inspector general’s office is conducting an “audit of ICE’s Processes for Investigating and Addressing Allegations of Excessive Use of Force,” per the office’s list of ongoing projects.

The probe seeks to “determine whether ICE investigates allegations of excessive use of force and holds personnel accountable in accordance with applicable Federal laws, DHS policies, and ICE directives.”

Spokespeople for the inspector general’s office and Immigration and Customs Enforcement did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the probe.

The lawmakers asked the watchdog to prioritize its review in light of the fact that the office routinely misses its own goal of completing audits within 397 days, according to a January report from the Government Accountability Office.

The Trump administration has signaled a willingness to soften its approach to immigration enforcement in recent weeks, with Democrats threatening to impeach DHS Secretary Kristi Noem and withhold funding for the department over its aggressive tactics.

In a move seen widely as an attempt to tamp down tensions in Minnesota, the White House pulled Border Patrol commander Gregory Bovino from the state and dispatched border czar Tom Homan to Minneapolis last week.

Following meetings between Homan and Democratic leaders in the state, Noem announced on Monday that ICE and CBP officers in the city will begin wearing body cameras during immigration enforcement operations there — a key demand from congressional Democrats in their push for reforms of the agencies.

And White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller — a central figure in the administration’s immigration enforcement campaign — conceded that CBP agents may not have been following protocol during the fatal shooting of Pretti, which is under review by the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division and DHS.

Still, President Donald Trump has aimed to downplay the shift in strategy, rebuffing suggestions that his administration is retreating from its aggressive deportation operation last week and continuing to disparage Pretti.