South Texas Democrat tells MSNBC they're now voting for Republicans
A MSNBC report found Latino voters are turning to the GOP this election in South Texas over crime concerns.
Republicans could flip several districts next Tuesday in the Democratic stronghold of South Texas, warned an MSNBC report on Friday.
The liberal outlet sent a reporter to McAllen, Texas to speak with Latino voters about who they were voting for in the upcoming midterm election. One life-long Democrat named "Iris" told MSNBC she would be voting for Republicans because she was dissatisfied with Democratic leadership and policies.
"I’ve been staunchly Democrat all of my life. It hasn’t been until recent that I’ve been undecided. I started voting Republican here at the local level," Iris said.
"I think it’s just people are tired of the same old, same old, the same status quo, where we keep voting the same people in and nothing is changing," she elaborated.
Latino voter Iris tells MSNBC that as a former 'staunch Democrat' she's voting for Republicans this year (MSNBC/screenshot)
The former Democrat said the party's support for the "defund the police" movement turned her off.
"Defund the police definitely does not resonate with me," she told the liberal outlet, adding that she supports "law and order" as well as prison reform.
A business owner named "Chris" in McAllen, Texas, told MSNBC that he was a registered Democrat but wasn't loyal to the party and could vote Republican.
"You never know. Maybe I could. It depends what they have to offer on the table. It’s not a matter of party loyalty anymore," Chris told MSNBC.
US Republican congressional candidate Monica De La Cruz speaks at a campaign event on October 10, 2022 at the University Drafthouse in Mcallen, Texas. (Photo by allison dinner / AFP) (Photo by ALLISON DINNER/AFP via Getty Images)
A local mayor and a political consultant in the area backed up these voters' claims that Democrats were ignoring concerns of Latino voters in South Texas.
Mayor Ramiro Garza of Edinburg, Texas said there was a "dissonance" between party priorities at the national level and there in Texas for Latino voters. "It's part of the reason why, perhaps locally there was this [political] shift," he said.
Political consultant Eddie Aldrete explained the pushback against progressive crime policies was personal to many Latinos in the region.
"Here you have a heavy presence of border patrol, I.C.E., Homeland Security investigations, ATF, DEA, as well as local police and county sheriffs. And so many sons and daughters are in those agencies and representing and working there. And so the defund the police argument here doesn’t quite translate as much as it does in other parts of the country," he said.
Hispanic Texas Republican congressional candidates Cassy Garcia and Monica De La Cruz, as well as Rep. Mayra Flores, R-Texas, are aiming to lead more Hispanic voters to support the Republican Party. (Garcia - Fox News Digital, De La Cruz - National Republican Congressional Committee, Flores - Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images )
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The political consultant told MSNBC that GOP House candidate Mayra Flores' historic win last June indicated Republicans were making inroads with Latino voters.
An NBC News/Telemundo poll of 1,000 Latino registered voters found a significant drop in support for Democrats since the last midterm election in November of 2018.
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