Mexican American Voted For Biden
Mexican Americans Voted for Biden
In the 2020 presidential election, the majority of Latinos voted for Joe Biden. Among Latinos, Mexican American’s electoral contributions became especially significant. As election results were reported, it became increasingly evident that the media and many politicians had limited knowledge about the diversity of the Latino community.
Latinos are not monolithic That is, they are not all alike, and a close look at Latino demographic attributes will demonstrate those differences. There are many social, political, and cultural distinctions of this ethnic group and racial community. In the Opinion section of the New York Times, Jamelle Bouie offered that “it is probably as useful to speak of “Hispanics” in 2020 as it was to speak of “Europeans” in 1950. The term “Latino” encompasses many different national origins, just like “Europeans” include Irish, English, Italians, Jewish, Polish, French, German, and other ethnic groups.
Biden-Harris supporters were prominent on election day across the state of Texas. Photo: Ricardo Romo
The decision by Latinos to vote for Biden depended on gender, socio-economic background, education level, age, ethnic and racial self-identification. Voting preferences also reflected religious differences, views on reproductive rights, and attitudes about immigration and citizenship status.
Election results in Florida and Texas made ideological differences within this ethnic group explicity apparent. Cuban Americans in Miami-Dade county helped Donald Trump secure a victory in Florida, while Mexican Americans in the key battleground states of Arizona and Nevada made a significant political difference in favor of Biden.
Congressman Joaquin Castro was re-elected by wide margins in San Antonio, Texas. Photo: Ricardo Romo
Political messaging for Latinos differed according to communities. In Florida, according to NBC News, “Trump and Republicans misleadingly cast Biden as a socialist and even a “Castro-Chavista,” [a reference to Fidel Castro of Cuba and Hugo Chavez of Venezuela].” Throughout the summer, there was incessant misleading messaging in Floreida’s Spanish language radio and television ads, as well as in social media, that proved effective for Trump. In hindsight, Biden’s political team was slow to respond effectively to the misinformation about their candidate.
For this account, I focus on the state of Texas where a surprising number of Latinos who had voted for Hilary Clinton and other Democrats in 2016, came out strong for President Trump. We have only partial exit poll results at this time, but there is enough information to speculate that for Latinos, this election was like no other in history.
No state registered a higher number of Trump voters than Texas. Trump won Texas with more than 5.8 million votes, a figure slightly higher than second place Florida which accounted for 5.6 million votes for Trump. Biden, however, won all the Texas urban areas including Houston, Dallas, San Antonio, El Paso, and Austin. Austin’s support of Biden, at 71.7%, was the highest for any of the larger cities of the state. Dallas and El Paso had similar high numbers for Biden, with 65% and 66% respectively.
Political activists in Texas supported many different urban bond issues. Photo: Ricardo Romo
Trump won Texas, however, by dominating the rural vote. The vast majority of Texas’s 254 counties are rural. Several registered 90% or higher support for Trump, including Roberts County in the Panhandle region with 96.2%, one of the highest in the state. The polling results of many rural communities along the Texas-Mexico border especially surprised the Biden camp. Most, but not all, of these South Texas border communities have a majority of Mexican American voters.
Biden had a greater challenge in the border communities of South Texas than Clinton experienced in 2016. No one is sure why. Three counties on the Rio Grande adjacent to each other, for example, had vastly different results. Laredo in Webb County, one of the larger cities of South Texas with a population of 264,000, is 95% Hispanic. Webb county supported Biden by a margin of 61% to 37%. Just 50 miles east along the Rio Grande River lies Zapata County with 14,000 residents, nearly all Hispanic. Zapata was the only border county along the southern part of Texas that gave Trump a majority, with a 52.5% to 47.1% edge.
The Latinos for Trump in San Antonio, Texas. Biden won San Antonio by a 58-40% margin. Photo: Ricardo Romo.
I asked one of my Rio Grande Valley friends, a former teacher, why Mexican Americans voted for Trump. Among the many reasons he noted was a growing ideological and social divide between working class “Mexicanos,” as many Mexican Americans call themselves, and those who identify as Hispanic, white, and middle class. As these Hispanics rise economically, they think more like Republicans, who favor tax cuts and border security.
Also mentioned was the reality that many Hispanics in Texas always favor the party in power, which in Texas has been the Republican party for the last 25 years. Hispanic building contractors and related small businesses who are aligned with those in power see the possibility of receiving contracts and benefits from Republicans in Austin and Washington, D.C.
Elections are about the future. With a raging pandemic, growing job losses, and uneasiness about the direction of our country in matters of racial equity, the Biden Administration will have to move quickly and decisively to put in place policies that will address these critical issues. Mexican Americans in Texas are confident that their support of Biden will result in greater attention to their communities in matters of the economy, health, and education, key issues of concern in the coming years.