Politics

Texas Hispanics swung hard to Trump. A new poll shows they’re furious at his deportations.

Published

2 months ago

July 12, 2026

Benny Melendez voted for President Donald Trump in 2024. But since Trump returned to the White House, it has been increasingly difficult for Melendez to run his small construction company in south Texas. He says immigration officers have detained workers at his job sites and while driving his company trucks. Since the beginning of 2025, more than 10 of those workers have been deported.

The chaos of the past year-and-a-half has convinced Melendez to abandon his support for Trump and Republicans, and instead back the Democrat in this year’s U.S. Senate election, state Rep. James Talarico.

“How can we continue voting for someone that is targeting our community?” Melendez said. “There’s no way possible we’re going to support that. No way.”

Melendez is not alone. One in five Hispanic business owners in Texas say they’ve had an employee deported in the past year, according to a new survey commissioned by the U.S. Hispanic Business Council and shared first with Blue Light News. Seven in ten said their businesses had been impacted by Trump’s tariffs. Among those surveyed, Talarico holds a seven-point lead over Attorney General Ken Paxton, the GOP nominee, even though a plurality of the over 1,000 respondents self-identify as Republican. Almost one quarter who supported Sen. John Cornyn in the Republican primary now say they’ll back Talarico, while over half say they’ll back Paxton.

The survey is the clearest sign yet of Paxton’s vulnerability among Texas’ robust Hispanic business community amidst broader signs that Hispanic voters around the country are swinging hard against him, thanks to the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown and the shaky economy. The survey was conducted from June 2 to 15 and included 1,012 Texas-based USHBC members. Respondents included business owners in construction, food services, retail, manufacturing and other industries.

Those business owners pointed to the fear the deportation push created in the community, as well as their bottom lines, for why they were turning on Trump and toward Talarico.

“The fear factor that it creates, the disruption that it creates, the environment that it creates, is debilitating,” said Javier Palomarez, president and CEO of USHBC. “If you’ve got a small business of 10 people or so, and you get even one person deported, you can imagine what that does to the morale of that business unit and to the fear of the business owner.”

Meanwhile, Paxton, long an immigration hardliner, has doubled down, touting his support for a controversial Texas immigration law and suing to stop publicly funded legal defense for undocumented immigrants.

The Texas Senate race will be one of the nation’s most watched — and most expensive — this cycle. Early polling shows it in a dead heat: A New York Times/Siena poll released last month showed Paxton and Talarico tied. Among Hispanic voters, Talarico led by 32 points. In 2024, Trump won Texas Latinos by 10 points.

In a statement, Paxton spokesperson Madison Cercy said Hispanic voters want “lower taxes, less regulation, affordable energy, and a strong economy.”

“Ken Paxton has a proven record of fighting for those priorities, while James Talarico has consistently opposed the tax-cutting policies that help Texans thrive, declares that ‘God is non-binary,’ and said that there are ‘six biological sexes,’” Cercy said. “Texans deserve to hear the truth about Talarico’s radical record and the damage his agenda would do to families and businesses across our state. Once they do, it will kill Talacreepo’s campaign for their vote.”

In a statement, Talarico offered an olive branch to Hispanic voters: “We should be supporting Hispanic small businesses — not crushing them under the weight of high costs and failed immigration policies,” he said. “Here’s my message to Hispanic communities across Texas: if you feel like you’ve been conned, if you feel like you’ve been let down by both political parties, if you feel like politicians aren’t doing anything to lower your costs or fix this broken immigration system — you’ve got a place in this campaign.”

Across south Texas, business owners say immigration enforcement is a major reason why they’re turning on the GOP. In 2024, Trump rode concerns over former President Joe Biden’s border policy to victory in the heavily Latino communities along the U.S.-Mexico border, a massive shift in the historically deep-blue region. Trump won 14 of those 18 border counties, including Starr County, a 90-percent Latino county that Hillary Clinton won with 79 percent of the vote in 2016 and hadn’t gone for a Republican since the 1890s.

But now, many feel the Trump administration’s interior enforcement policy has gone too far. 70 percent of those surveyed in the USHBC poll had a negative view of the immigration raids on the workforce, and that impact on families and businesses risks kneebuckling Republicans running in those same border districts.

“I didn’t like what Biden was doing here on the border,” Melendez said. “But now with Trump, it’s all the opposite, 180 degree change. He doesn’t let us work. He’s taking the best we have.”

Earlier this year, construction executives in south Texas sounded the alarm on immigration enforcement. Some trade association leaders met with officials in the White House and Congress to discuss concerns in February.

Immigration enforcement at worksites subsided for several months, executives said. But activity ticked up again last month. Now, Melendez says, immigration officers are again rounding up workers at construction sites and pulling over vehicles that have work equipment like ladders. The Department of Homeland Security didn’t immediately respond to request for comment on this characterization of enforcement.

“It just seems now more than ever, if you’re brown, they’re gonna stop you,” said Mario Guerrero, a three-time Trump voter who leads the South Texas Builders Association. “And I know that sounds really racist, but it’s what we’re facing, man.”

Across the state, story after story of the immigration crackdown consume local media: An undocumented man in Houston shot and killed by an ICE officer; a mariachi musician in San Antonio detained after playing at a birthday party; a Catholic nun in McAllen detained while walking to Sunday Mass.

Even some Republican officials have denounced the activity. “As I have repeatedly said, our immigration enforcement should target violent criminals,” GOP Rep. Monica de la Cruz, who represents a battleground district in the Rio Grande Valley, wrote on Facebook. “A Catholic nun on her way to church is not a threat to our community.”

One construction company owner in south Texas, granted anonymity to speak openly, said the nun’s arrest — which was plastered all over local news last month — was “the final nail in the coffin” for many Hispanics in the community who had voted for Republicans.

“We’re pissed off at the current administration. Everybody’s pissed off down here in south Texas,” the construction executive said, noting that most Hispanics in the area are Catholic. “Remember, we’re conservative, we’re not far left. We’re in the middle, conservative Latinos in south Texas. It doesn’t make sense.”

Guerrero, who leads a trade group with over 160 members across south Texas, said the idea that deportations will create jobs for American workers is ill-informed. “When people say, ‘Why don’t you hire American citizens to do foundation or to do concrete?’ I’m like, ‘Dude, tell me what f—ing United States citizen is gonna want to go and pour concrete at 103 degrees down here in the valley,’” Guerrero said.

Palomarez echoed that sentiment.

“This notion that these immigrants are taking American jobs is bullshit,” said Palomarez. “The districts in South Texas that swung decidedly Republican are paying the price, because that fear-mongering has come home to roost. And now you don’t have employees, or enough employees, to get that project done.”

Politics

Crypto weighs revenge against Democrats — and the risks that come with it

Published

2 hours ago

September 23, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

The cryptocurrency industry is at a political crossroads.

Reeling from the demise of its longtime top legislative priority, crypto companies must now decide how scorched-earth to go against Senate Democrats, who last week voted unanimously against the so-called Clarity Act, a sweeping bill that would create a bespoke new regulatory framework for digital assets.

A crypto-backed PAC network’s move this week provides a hint of what may be to come. The group, known as Fairshake, announced it would spend at least $30 million to help block Democrat Sherrod Brown from recapturing a pivotal Ohio Senate seat, representing the first major signal of how the industry plans to deploy its massive campaign war chest in the final weeks before the 2026 midterms.

Some crypto executives have publicly signaled an appetite in recent days for punishing Democrats. But a partisan strategy carries major political risk for the industry: A broad offensive against Democrats ahead of an election where they have a chance to reclaim power on Capitol Hill could further alienate lawmakers the industry may soon need to revive its agenda.

“As much as some people may want to, they can’t wave a wand and make Democrats go away,” said Sheila Warren, the former CEO of the Crypto Council for Innovation, an industry trade group. “Every industry — not just crypto — has to figure out what to do with that reality.”

The crypto industry’s spending could have immediate consequences after the election. Democrats are signaling that a Senate GOP-aligned spending spree would suppress any appetite for lame duck dealmaking involving the Clarity bill — although it remains a long shot that it would come back to life regardless. A Senate Democratic aide involved in the crypto effort said a full-scale assault on the party’s Senate candidates “would absolutely eviscerate any hope” of a post-election deal.

The Fairshake PAC group, funded primarily by crypto firms Coinbase and Ripple and venture capital giant Andreessen Horowitz, had more than $120 million at its disposal as of the end of August. It has previously deployed its war chest to help members of both parties who support industry-friendly policies.

Fairshake is preparing to announce additional spending decisions supporting both Democrats and Republicans in the coming days, according to a spokesperson for the group, Geoff Vetter. But it’s unclear what races — or which chamber — it will target next.

Kara Calvert, Coinbase’s vice president of U.S. policy, said in an interview that bipartisanship has been crypto’s “superpower.”

“Nobody is eager to erode that,” she said.

Though Fairshake says it will maintain a bipartisan approach, it hasn’t specified what shape that will take. One potential avenue for the PAC is to continue to back crypto-friendly Democrats running for the House — where the Clarity bill advanced with 78 Democratic votes last year — but primarily help Republicans in the Senate.

Fairshake spent in favor of several Senate Democrats in the 2024 elections, including in battleground general election races in Michigan and Arizona, where it backed Democratic Sens. Elissa Slotkin and Ruben Gallego, respectively. It also plowed more than $40 million into the effort to help defeat Brown in his 2024 reelection campaign — by far its biggest spend of the cycle.

This time, Republicans are pressing the industry to recalibrate its approach and ditch the Democrats.

“To reward people who voted against the motion to proceed on Clarity after the Democrats got 126 amendments in the bill would be a huge mistake,” said Sen. Cynthia Lummis, the crypto bill’s leading champion in the Senate. The Wyoming Republican is retiring when her term ends in January.

Democrats, who feel increasingly confident about their chances in November despite the GOP’s spending advantages, say Republicans are trying to play the crypto industry.

It’s “been the goal of Republican colleagues all along to try to get folks to invest in races, versus them trying to get a piece of legislation done, and someone needs to call the Republicans out on their bullshit,” said Sen. Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.), who added: “Sherrod’s gonna win.”

Politics

Can Mitch Landrieu break through in 2028?

Published

2 hours ago

September 23, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

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Politics

Sen. Jon Husted: Iran war ‘needs to come to an end as quickly as possible’

Published

17 hours ago

September 22, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Sen. Jon Husted became the latest battleground Republican this week to call for a quick end to the Iran war, as panic grows over how high gas prices and President Donald Trump’s agenda could imperil the party’s chances in November.

“The war needs to come to an end as quickly as possible so that we can lower gas prices,” the Ohio senator told Blue Light News, in his furthest comments yet on the matter.

Coming after Iowa Senate nominee Ashley Hinson, who broke from Trump over the war on Monday, and Michigan Senate nominee Mike Rogers, who followed suit hours later, Husted’s comments are another example of the pressure he and other Republicans are under to address prices at the pump. Several candidates are creating some distance from Trump, as voters continue to blame the president for the current economy and the Iran conflict for high costs of living.

Husted said in the interview that he still thinks Iran needs to reach a deal with Trump to end the conflict, but added: “I don’t know anybody that doesn’t want the war to come to an end.”

He has a finer line to walk with Trump in his state, and Republicans close to him say he can’t and won’t completely break with the president. Husted does not plan to support the Democratic-led war powers resolution when it comes up for a vote in the Senate this week, a spokesperson said. And Trump and Vice President JD Vance are expected to visit the state in the coming weeks to shore up his campaign and drive GOP turnout.

Husted is staring down a tight race against former Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown, where millions in spending and recent polling have put Brown slightly ahead. Top Hill Republicans and Senate GOP operatives have said the Ohio Senate race is among their primary concerns in the battle to keep control of the chamber.

But Ohio is just one in a series of battlegrounds where rising gas prices have become a defining issue. Beyond Hinson and Rogers, a growing number of Republicans are starting to call for emergency actions like a diesel export ban to lower gas prices, including Iowa GOP Reps. Zach Nunn and Mariannette Miller-Meeks.

“Hinson broke the dam,” said one GOP operative, who was granted anonymity to discuss private conversations.

Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska), who is locked in an incredibly competitive race, called Tuesday for a diesel export ban to provide voters relief. He didn’t mention the Iran war.

The panic is being felt most acutely in the Midwest, as high gas and diesel prices and Trump’s tariffs hammer families, truckers and farmers just a few weeks ahead of the peak harvest season with no relief in sight.

By Sunday night, Rogers had filmed an ad at a grocery store decrying high prices and, straight to camera, breaking with Trump to call for an end to the Iran war, according to two Republicans involved in the matter, granted anonymity to discuss internal conversations.

Rogers’ team was putting the finishing touches on the ad Monday morning when Hinson posted her break with Trump over the war directly on social media.

“The war’s just gone on too long. Mike still thinks Iran shouldn’t have a nuclear weapon, but we originally thought this would take six weeks,” said one person with direct knowledge of the conversations in Rogers’ camp about the move. “Voters have been paying for it at their kitchen tables for too long.”

Michigan’s GOP nominee for governor, Rep. John James, also said Tuesday the Iran war needs to end “quickly.” And Rep. Tom Tiffany, Wisconsin’s GOP governor nominee, said Tuesday he believes “we should be exiting Iran, that it’s time to move on, we’ve degraded their nuclear facilities, we’ve degraded their military … time to come home, take care of business here in America.”

Trump, for his part, told reporters Tuesday that he asked his team to consider a diesel export ban, and that his administration is mulling it.

But the move is rife with internal GOP fighting behind the scenes: Trump’s team is getting an earful from GOP lawmakers in oil states who oppose the move, according to four people with direct knowledge of the matter who were granted anonymity to discuss private conversations. That makes any decision before the midterms highly problematic with at least one corner of the party.

Both the top House GOP leaders — Speaker Mike Johnson and Majority Leader Steve Scalise — have opposed similar measures from the past to protect their oil state of Louisiana. The Texas GOP delegation is also “strongly opposed,” according to another Republican.

Husted told Blue Light News on Tuesday that he supports his state legislature suspending Ohio’s gas tax for a period. Democrat Amy Acton, who is running for governor, called for a gas tax suspension Monday. Her GOP opponent Vivek Ramaswamy and a broader swath of Republicans called for the state legislature to convene and pass legislation to suspend the state’s gas tax hours later.

“I think in the long run we are going to have lower gas prices,” Husted said, citing the war in Ukraine as a factor for spiking diesel costs as well as the war with Iran. “It’s taking longer than any of us wish it would. So in the interim, while those things are concluding, the idea of providing relief from the gas tax for Ohioans for a short period of time is a reasonable thing for Governor [Mike] DeWine to consider.”