Politics

Why this Latino Harris voter says he’s ‘happy’ Trump won

Published

2 years ago

November 11, 2024

jmfourrier@outlook.com

Why this Latino Harris voter says he’s ‘happy’ Trump won

Nov. 8, 2024, 9:36 PM UTC

By Allison Detzel

President-elect Donald Trump won a second term in the White House thanks, in part, to a spike in support across several demographic groups. That includes a record-breaking jump among Latino voters.

According to NBC News exit polls, Vice President Kamala Harris still secured the support of a majority of Latino voters, at 53%, while Trump took in about 45% of the vote. That’s a 13-point increase from the same demographic in 2020. It’s also a record high for a Republican presidential nominee, beating out George W. Bush’s 44% in 2004. The increase was especially dramatic among Latino men, with 55% going for Trump this year, compared to 36% in 2020, NBC News exit polling showed.

NBC News’ David Noriega went to Nevada — a state Trump lost in 2016 and 2020 but won this time — to find out what’s driving one Latino family’s support for the president-elect.

Mario Alvarez said that for months he had been wrestling with whom to cast his ballot for before ultimately deciding to vote for Harris. But after Tuesday’s results, Alvarez told Noriega that he was not upset Trump won.

“I’m kind of like, more happy than upset,” Mario said. “Because Donald Trump is going to help the country with the economy.”

His son, Mario Jr., voted for Trump, in part because of the Republican’s brashness.

“Initially, I will say I did not agree with him,” said Mario Jr., 29. “Then I started seeing that he was not afraid to speak his mind and I noticed that he was not scared to say what he felt, regardless of what people would say. I think I respect that about him.”

Across the board, the economy was a top issue for Latino voters in this election. The elder Mario’s wife, Mireya, also voted for Trump and expressed concern that the next generation would not have the same opportunities as hers.

“My main concern right now [is] what’s going to happen to our new generation,” Mireya told Noriega. “They’re not even able to move out of their houses anymore because everything is so expensive.”

The couple came to the United States from Mexico and Guatemala in the 1980s, crossing the border illegally as teenagers but later becoming citizens under President Ronald Reagan’s amnesty program.

As NBC News reported, Latino voters — like other voter groups —have shifted right on immigration in recent years, with more backing tougher enforcement against people arriving at the border.

In a September NBC News poll, 35% of Latinos said that immigration hurts the country more than it helps. That’s the highest share of Latino voters to say so in the survey’s 20-year history.

Mireya said she considered herself and her husband different than the migrants crossing the border illegally today.

In a September NBC News poll, 35% of Latinos said that immigration hurts the country more than it helps.

“The people that are coming here are the criminals,” she said. “The ones that did something bad in their country. They’re running away from the law.”

On the campaign trail, Trump promised to carry out mass deportations of millions of undocumented people. On Thursday, he double-downed on that promise, telling NBC News there would be “no price tag” for what he has said would be the largest deportation of immigrants in U.S. history.

Although the Alvarez family has friends and relatives who are currently undocumented, Mireya told Noriega she’s not worried they would be deported under Trump’s plan since “they’re not breaking any laws.”

“My family is Latino and a lot of them are immigrants,” Mario Jr. added. “But at the end of the day, we’re American.”

Allison Detzel

Allison Detzel is an editor/producer for BLN Digital.

Politics

Trump-backed Jay Feely wins GOP primary in Arizona’s battleground 1st District

Published

2 hours ago

July 22, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Former Arizona Cardinals kicker Jay Feely cruised to victory in Arizona’s 1st District on Tuesday, one of the nation’s most competitive battlegrounds.

Feely, a close ally of President Donald Trump, leveraged Trump’s endorsement to topple former state Rep. Joseph Chaplik.

He’ll face a steep challenge defeating the Democratic nominee in November: The 1st District, which spans the affluent suburbs north of Phoenix, is one of House Democrats’ top targets after Trump won it by just three points in 2024. Feely is looking to keep the seat under GOP control amid a midterm year that presents major headwinds for the party.

Politics

Rep. Andy Biggs wins GOP primary for Arizona governor

Published

2 hours ago

July 22, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Trump-endorsed Rep. Andy Biggs has won the GOP primary to face Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs in November, setting up a marquee governor’s race in one of America’s most competitive states.

Biggs, a former chair of the hardline House Freedom Caucus and a close ally of President Donald Trump, easily dealt with his only serious challenger, Rep. David Schweikert, on Tuesday. Before the primary results were official, he had already begun pivoting to the general election against Hobbs, who is seen as one of the most vulnerable Democratic governors this fall.

Republicans feel bullish about their odds of flipping the governorship, after Trump carried the state by five points in 2024. But even though Trump won last time, the state has gradually shifted to pure tossup territory over the past few years, electing Democrats to both Senate seats, as well as the attorney general and secretary of state’s offices.

Hobbs had already shifted her focus to Biggs as well. Her campaign has amassed a significant warchest for the race and has already started running ads. Biggs, given his lack of a significant primary challenge, has been able to hold onto more cash than his GOP rivals, but is still behind Hobbs.

The race will test whether Republicans, who are starting down a potentially bruising midterm cycle, can reclaim the top office of a state that has long been a place of success for the party.

During the Republican primary debate, Biggs spent more time talking about his working relationship with House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Arizona Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly than he did flexing his endorsement from Trump or highlighting his House record, including his time atop the Freedom Caucus. Instead, he tried to refocus on his bipartisanship in Congress and his leadership in the state legislature.

“I know how to reach across the aisle,” Biggs said during the debate.

But he will still have to contend with many of his past stances, including his role in trying to overturn the 2020 election.

And Hobbs is already working to ensure voters know where Biggs stands on key issues as a longtime member of the House, including his anti-abortion positions and his role in 2020. Her campaign has repeatedly attacked him as “too extreme” for the state and has dubbed him “basement Biggs” for keeping a relatively low profile throughout the GOP primary.

Politics

Trump-backed Mark Lamb wins Arizona House primary despite sex scandals

Published

2 hours ago

July 22, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

A scandal-plagued House candidate powered by President Donald Trump’s endorsement won a messy primary Tuesday.

Mark Lamb, the former Pinal County sheriff, overcame a late push from self-funding candidate Daniel Keenan in Arizona’s 5th District. Lamb will enter November as the heavy frontrunner in the deep-red Phoenix-area district to replace Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.), who is running for governor.

Keenan had poured nearly $2 million of his own cash into the campaign and attempted to make Lamb’s alleged sexual misconduct and abuse of power central to the race. Lamb has denied the allegations.

But Lamb — bolstered by Trump and Arizona-based Turning Point USA — managed to ward off the attacks.

The race’s outcome reveals the strength of Trump’s endorsement, and it’s the latest example of how willing GOP primary voters have been to accept scandal-ridden candidates favored by the president.

Lamb, who served as sheriff until 2024, earned national notoriety as a gun-toting critic of the Biden administration’s immigration and border policy. He secured Trump’s backing for the 5th District contest last year.

Then in May, the Arizona Republic launched a multi-part investigation alleging that Lamb engaged in a yearslong pattern of sending sexual images and instigating intimate encounters between him, his wife and others. One woman involved, Jillian Stannard, accused Lamb of encouraging her husband to have sex with other women, including Lamb’s wife. She also alleged that Lamb threatened her, saying there would be consequences, when Stannard raised concerns to religious leaders.

Screenshots the Republic obtained of messages with another woman, Tammy Peacock, suggest Lamb — then a sitting county sheriff — threatened to leverage Arizona’s revenge porn law against her.

In a statement last week, Lamb spokesperson Ed Morabito told Blue Light News that “these allegations are false and come from long-discredited political opponents.”

Lamb did not lose any significant endorsements in the wake of the scandals — Trump reinforced his endorsement in mid-July — even as Keenan made the allegations central to his campaign.