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“Republican Mayra Flores prevailed Tuesday in a special election for an open congressional seat in South Texas, marking a major breakthrough for Republicans eager to blaze new inroads in the historically blue region.” Texas Tribune
Also on Tuesday, primary elections were held in Maine, Nevada, North Dakota, and South Carolina. Ballotpedia
Many on both sides agree that the Democrats appear to be losing support from Hispanic voters:
“After winning Tuesday’s special election in Texas, Mayra Flores will soon become America’s first Mexican-born Congresswoman—and by the way, she’s a Republican who’s married to a Border Patrol agent. What a great American story, plus another piece of evidence that Democrats won’t win the future on demographics alone…
“Today’s Democratic Party is increasingly out of step with many Hispanic voters. Progressives want no restrictions on abortion. They see oil-and-gas jobs as a threat to the climate. And they characterize religious-liberty arguments as bigotry in disguise. The more that President Biden defers to the left-most elements of his party, the better the opportunity for Republicans to make substantive gains.”
Editorial Board, Wall Street Journal
"From the looks of things, the Democrats’ hold on Latino voters appears to be rapidly eroding. The cracks that appeared in the 2020 elections continue to grow. Concerns over the economy and crime have supplanted immigration as a driving issue. With Trump’s name not on the ballot, the collapse of the stock market and inflation rampant, Flores’s win is a foretaste of the coming midterms. The special election also served as a blunt reminder of the lack of rapport between Joe Biden and the Latino community…
“Contrary to what some progressives have convinced themselves, not all Hispanics feel woke, let alone are inclined to refer to themselves as ‘Latinx’. White voters with college degrees and Black voters in general comprise the heart of the Democrats’ coalition. But other demographic blocs appear to be heading for the door. Against this backdrop, the supreme court’s expected decision to overturn Roe v Wade should not be viewed by Democrats as a magic bullet that will rescue them from an expected Republican wave this fall.”
Lloyd Green, The Guardian
Other opinions below.
“Immigration and Joe Biden’s border crisis were the issues that clinched the deal for [Flores]. The RGV [Rio Grande Valley] has been under siege in the border crisis, and Hispanic Americans who live there are sick of it. Flores’ husband is a Border Patrol agent, a point she raised in campaign ads, so it’s a personal issue to her and that must have resonated with the voters in the special election as well. Perhaps people don’t appreciate the intensity of this issue in the RGV, but the flip of the seat — even temporarily — should wake people up, especially Democrats…
“[The incumbent] used to win this district easily before Biden took office; his worst showing was in 2020 when he beat three-time challenger Rey Gonzalez 55/42. Biden himself won this district 51-47 in the same election, but Hillary Clinton had won it 59-37 in 2016. The educational and cultural issues may have grown more acute in the last year or so, but the border crisis is a four-alarm fire in the RGV. This is exactly why Henry Cuellar tried to warn Democrats from the start of Biden’s presidency about the border crisis … and Democrats repaid him by trying to primary him out of office with a radical progressive.”
Ed Morrissey, Hot Air
“[The Texas] race is being pitched as a bellwether for November, but it’s really not as though we need a bellwether race to know that Democrats are cruising for a real bruising. In my view, last night’s outcome in the 34th district has less to do with rising sentiment against Democrats, although it’s probably a bit of that, than it does a real, meaningful change in the way Hispanics vote — which would be a much more ominous sign for Democrats in the long run.”
Alexandra DeSanctis, National Review
"What we’re seeing in the latest primaries is truly ominous for the future of democracy… [Take the] disturbing story out of heavily Republican Otero County in New Mexico, where Donald Trump beat Joe Biden in 2020 by 26 points. All three members of the county commission are Republicans. Those Republicans have now unanimously refused to certify the results of the recent primary election. Why? They can’t point to anything fraudulent or even suspicious that occurred in the primary; all they have are the usual claims about Dominion voting machines, which have been widely debunked. ‘I have huge concerns with these voting machines,’ one of the commissioners said…
“All up and down the line, we’re going to see efforts to disrupt election procedures and undo results. It will come from local officials such as those in Otero. It will come from Trumpist partisans who have signed up to work as poll workers to secure the election for the GOP. It will come from a network of far-right sheriffs who have convinced themselves that they have the authority to seize voting machines… The result will be one place after another — towns, counties, maybe entire states — where the Republicans in charge say ‘Something fishy went on, we can’t say exactly what, but anyhow, we declare that the Republican candidates won.’”
Paul Waldman, Washington Post
“Congress must reform election procedures vulnerable to such abuse, starting with the Electoral Count Act, which governs how electoral votes are tallied. A partisan procedural coup should be impossible. Federal lawmakers have a narrow window in which to act before the 2022 midterm elections reshape Congress.”
Editorial Board, Washington Post
