‘My Eyes Opened’: Latinas Abandoned Republicans in Droves

One Analysis Found a Larger Than 40-Point Advantage for Democratic Candidates for u.s. Senate Among Latinas — A Mix of Voters Who Shifted Loyalties or Stayed Home.

SAN ANTONIO, Texas — Latino men swung back hard; Latinas swung back harder.

Most Latinas didn’t back President Donald Trump in 2024, but enough of them did to help usher him back into the White House. Early data from this week’s midterms suggests that many of those women came swinging back toward Democrats this cycle, taking on the role of deciders up and down the ballot, from Texas to Michigan. In places like Florida, many of them appear to have simply sat out, giving Democrats some of the best margins they’ve seen in years.

The swing didn’t come out of the blue — pun intended. Interviews with voters, as well as with experts who track Latinos, suggest that their shift to the left was fueled by intense disillusionment with Republicans, who didn’t fix the money problems that trouble them and spent the past two years rounding up their friends, neighbors and employees in immigration raids.

“I changed my mind on Trump when I realized he just likes control. He’s not about the people — he’s more like a dictator,” said Lucero Loera, 34, who lives in Round Rock, Texas, and voted for Democrats in Tuesday’s election, helping lift Democrat James Talarico to victory and in turn Democratic control of the Senate. She also backed Gina Hinojosa, who defeated incumbent Gov. Greg Abbott.

“It’s like my eyes opened.”

A post-election analysis of midterm voters by UnidosUS, a Hispanic civil rights and advocacy organization, found that 1 in 5 Latinas who backed Trump in 2024 decided to support Democrats instead, a higher share than Latino men, who also moved away from Republicans. UnidosUS surveyed 3,000 Latino voters who cast ballots in the midterms.

Latinas backed Democrats in U.S. House races at higher levels than Latino men. Within that topline victory for Democrats is the fact that Latina candidates will take up a record number of seats in Congress.

But it’s in races for the U.S. Senate where they may have made the most impact. The UnidosUS analysis found a larger than 40-point advantage for Democratic candidates for U.S. Senate among Latinas — a mix of voters who shifted loyalties or stayed home.

“It’s very clear that Latinas had a huge impact on the Michigan and Texas results,” said Gary Segura, the president of BSP Research, a Latino-owned research firm that conducted the survey.

In a strip mall on the west side of U.S. Route 281, which divides the northern suburbs of San Antonio into two congressional districts, Juliana Escudero, 42, said she simply wasn’t planning to vote.

The San Antonio resident who lives in Texas’ 23rd Congressional District previously backed Trump but said in an interview that she’s grown weary of politics. While she originally liked the business-friendly messaging coming from Trump and Abbott, the administration’s immigration crackdown has impacted the staffing agency she works for, including a worker who had a pending asylum case.

“I was on board with securing the border so long as people who were already here, who had pending cases, families, no criminal records and paid their taxes could eventually become regularized,” she said. Asked about the Democrats on the ballot, she said she didn’t want to support either Talarico or Hinojosa because she felt they were farther to the left than she was comfortable with.

Janet Murguía, the president and CEO of UnidosUS, said the data shows immigration fell far behind the economy when they asked voters what their most pressing issues were. But in every single conversation, the anger and heartbreak about the administration’s immigration crackdown showed up, along with the ways in which the administration’s enforcement was hurting people’s wallets.

Projections show that 2026 may hold the record for the largest turnout of Latino voters ever in a midterm election, though it’ll be weeks before a clearer picture emerges. Latinos have some of the lowest voter turnout rates, a challenge made particularly difficult by the fact that every election, about 1 million new Latino voters become eligible to vote. Latinas register and turnout at higher rates than Latino men.

Oriana Zapata, 37, became eligible to vote two years ago. A resident of Texas’ 23rd Congressional District, she said in a Monday interview from a Venezuelan restaurant in north San Antonio that she was backing Democrats because she felt that Republicans had shown broad rejection of immigrants in the last two years. Zapata said the one exemption is James Talarico, who went on to win the Senate race; she said she had been targeted by messaging about his views on gender that made her skeptical of him.

After polls closed, this district became a relic of a failed gerrymandering effort by Texas Republicans: Democratic Rep. Katy Padilla Stout easily trounced Republican Brandon Herrera by nine points in a district that went for Trump by 15 points. Upstream, Abbott lost his reelection bid to Texas’ first Latina governor by seven points.

Padilla Stout will join at least 26 other Latinas in the U.S. House, beating the previous record of 20 set in 2022 with some races still left to count. These women are overwhelmingly Democrats, and at least 10 will be newcomers to Congress. Their growing ranks come after voters nominated a record-breaking number of Latina House candidates — 38 — in the primaries. Latinas will make up about half of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, which will grow to a record-breaking 55 members in the 120th Congress.

In Nevada, Teresa Benitez-Thompson, a former state Assembly majority leader, flipped a district that Trump won by double digits in both 2020 and 2024. In Arizona, JoAnna Mendoza flipped a border district that decided control of the House in Republicans’ favor last cycle. All three candidates focused primarily on addressing the rising cost of living.

Franco Caliz-Aguilar, the national political director of Community Change Action, a progressive nonprofit focused on turning out infrequent voters of color that has an affiliated super PAC, said that Democrats would be making a mistake by describing the midterms’ results as a “coming home” for Latinos. Without action, Democrats could be staring at a “mirror image” of Tuesday’s results in 2028.

Caliz-Aguilar said that the intense frustration voters feel about stagnant wages and rising costs needs a solution that people can feel immediately and that Democrats can message clearly. Latinas report feeling the pain of rising costs more intensely: They have to contend with the gender wage gap, and they are also more likely to grocery shop, handle caregiving and navigate the healthcare system for their families.

“They need policies that make a difference tomorrow,” Caliz-Aguilar said. “Child tax credit expansion. Universal child care is something we hear over and over again. Direct cash assistance for folks. Is there more political imagination given last night’s results that is possible?”

Democrats will also have to contend with the administration’s immigration agenda and many voters’ desire for policies that protect some immigrants’ ability to remain in the country or reach legal status. About a quarter of Latinos ranked immigration enforcement as a top three issue in the election, with Latinas slightly more likely to say so. Among Trump regretters, it’s almost one-third.

In a social media post, Vice President J.D. Vance said he expects “any number of establishment politicians say the solution to our woes is amnesty,” a term Republicans use to refer to a path to citizenship for immigrants without legal status to be in the country.

“I’m open to the idea that we should change enforcement — by focusing more on businesses that hire illegal labor, for instance. But anyone pushing amnesty is lying to you.”

In comments to Politico, Trump said he was open to deal-making on immigration, saying he would “consider doing whatever I think is appropriate and good for the country.” Trump also posted a picture of a red hat with the word “VETO” on Truth Social.

While both parties will have to contend with swing Latinas for cycles to come, in 2026, a clear majority of Latinas backed Democrats, as they’ve done for many cycles.

Cynthia Aguillon-Bernard has long favored Democrats but identifies as an independent. On Tuesday night, she was swaying to the music at Hinojosa’s election night party, hand to her heart. Around the venue, the campaign had handed out signs that read, “Gina Como La Gov,” a play on Selena’s “Como La Flor” record that played through the night.

Speaking of Democrats’ wins in Texas, she said: “This win is for the man and his family that have taken care of all the maintenance at our house and is detained by ICE. I think this win is for friends of our family that are afraid to go outside in their home,” she said. “Most of all, I feel like this win is for Latinas.”

Correction: An earlier version of this article misstated what year the previous record was set for Latinas in the U.S. House.

This article was previously published by The 19th on November 5, 2026.

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