In Texas and California redistricting battles, Latino voters hold the key
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Latinos unleashed a political earthquake after voting for Donald Trump, who has long painted the country’s largest minority as an existential threat, in unexpectedly large numbers in the fall.
This swing to MAGA helped Trump win, kicked Democrats into the political wilderness, launched a thousand thought pieces and showed politicians that they ignore Latinos at their own risk.
Now, Latinos once again hold the power to make or break American politics, thanks to redistricting fights shaping up in Texas and California. And once again, both Democratic and Republican leaders think they know what Latinos want.
Charles Munger Jr., who backed the creation of an independent redistricting commission, donated $10 million to oppose California Democrats’ effort to redraw congressional districts.
In the Lone Star State, the GOP-dominated Legislature last week approved the redrawing of congressional districts at the behest of Trump, upending the traditional process, to help Republicans gain up to five seats in the 2026 midterms. Their California counterparts landed on the opposite side of the gerrymandering coin — their maps, which will go before voters in November, target Republican congressional members.
Texas Republicans and California Democrats are both banking on Latinos to be the swing votes that make their gambits successful. That’s understandable but dangerous. If ever a voting bloc fulfills the cliche that to assume something makes an ass out of you and me, it’s Latinos.
Despite President Reagan’s famous statement that Latinos were Republicans who didn’t know it yet, they rejected the GOP in California and beyond for a generation after the passage of Proposition 187 in 1994. When Hillary Clinton supporters whispered during the 2008 presidential race that Latinos would never vote for a Black candidate, they gladly joined the coalition that put Barack Obama in the White House. Trump increased his Latino support each time he ran — to the point that in 2024, a bigger proportion of Latinos voted for him than for any previous Republican presidential candidate — even though Democrats insisted that Latinos couldn’t possibly stomach a man that racist.
Many Latinos hate being taken for granted and don’t like the establishment telling them how to think. It’s classic rancho libertarianism, the term I created in the era of Trump to describe the political leanings of the people with whom I grew up: Mexican Americans from rural stock who simultaneously believed in community and individualism and hated the racist rhetoric of Republicans but didn’t care much for the woke words of Democrats, either.
Such political independence exasperates political leaders, yet it’s long been a thing with Latino voters across the U.S. but especially in Texas and California, where Mexican American voters make up an overwhelming majority of each state’s Latino electorate. As Republicans in the former and Democrats in the latter launch their initial redistricting volleys, they seem to be forgetting that, yet again.
The GOP is hoping voters in South Texas, one of the most Latino areas of the U.S., will carry their Trump love to the 2026 congressional races. There, two of the three congressional seats are held by Democrats Henry Cuellar and Vicente Gonzalez, despite a swing from most of the region’s 41 counties supporting Hillary Clinton in 2016 to just five going for Kamala Harris eight years later.
In their new maps, Texas legislators poured more Republican voters into those South Texas districts. They also configured new districts in the Houston area and central Texas so that Latinos are now the majority, but voters favored Trump last year.
But a lawsuit filed hours after the Texas Senate moved the maps to Gov. Greg Abbott for his approval alleged that all the finagling had created “Potemkin majority-Latino districts.” The intent, according to the lawsuit, was to dilute Latino power by packing some voters into already Democratic-leaning districts while splitting up others among red-leaning districts.
The legislators especially threw San Antonio, a longtime Democratic stronghold that’s a cradle of Latino electoral power, into a political Cuisinart. Three Latino Democrats currently represent the Alamo City and its metro area: Cuellar, Joaquin Castro and Greg Casar. Under the new maps, only Castro is truly safe, while Casar is now in a district represented by Democratic Rep. Lloyd Doggett, who has announced he will retire.
“We have three Hispanic-predominated districts in South Texas that we believe we can carve out for Republican leadership,” state GOP Rep. Mitch Little bragged on CNN this month. “It’s good for our party. It’s good for our state. And we need to ensure that Donald Trump’s agenda continues to be enacted.”
The thing is, fewer and fewer Latinos are supporting Trump’s agenda. In Reuters/Ipsos polls, his Latino support dropped from 36% in February to 31% this month. Only 27% of Latinos approved of his performance in a Pew Research Center poll released this month.
If this slide continues through next year and Latinos continue to reject MAGA, Texas Republicans would have done Trump’s gross gerrymandering and sparked a nationwide legislative civil war for nothing.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom said the proposed partisan redistricting that favors Democrats is a necessary counterweight to President Trump’s threat to American democracy.
In California, Latino voters are also crucial to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s redistricting push — but Democrats are hoping they’ll be GOP spoilers, despite their recent tack to the right.
Republican Rep. Kevin Kiley’s district would swing into Sacramento, picking up many more Latino voters than he now has in the majority white Eastern Sierra.
Proposed districts for Democrats Josh Harder and Adam Gray in Central California and Derek Tran in Orange County, all of whom the party is trying to buttress after they squeaked through in close elections in the fall, also include areas with more Latinos. A new congressional district in southeast L.A. County would probably be filled by a Latino Democrat.
Powerful Latinos in the state have already come out in favor of Newsom’s so-called Election Rigging Response Act, and the governor is counting on them to convince Latino voters to approve the maps in November.
But all this shuffling is happening a year after those very voters jolted state Democrats. Although the party still holds a super-majority in Sacramento, Democratic legislators serve alongside the largest number of Latino GOP colleagues ever. The biggest swings to Trump happened in areas with larger Latino populations, according to a Public Policy Institute of California report published last month.
The president’s popularity is especially souring in California due to his deportation deluge — but whether Latinos will support redistricting is another matter.
Although 51% of Latinos support Newsom’s performance, only 43% said they would vote yes on his redistricting push — the lowest percentage of any ethnic group, according to a UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies poll conducted for the Los Angeles Times. The poll also found that 29% of Latinos are undecided on redistricting — the highest percentage of any group.
Such skepticism is the bitter fruit of a generation of Democratic rule in Sacramento, at a time when blue-collar Latinos are finding it harder to achieve the good life. Politicians blaming it all on Trump eventually created a Chicken Little situation that pushed those Latinos into MAGAlandia — and Newsom, by constantly casting redistricting as a necessary uppercut against Trump, is in danger of making the same mistake.
California Latinos have helped to torpedo liberal shibboleths at the ballot box more often than Democrats will ever admit. A Times exit poll found 45% of them voted to recall Gov. Gray Davis in 2003 while 53% voted yes on the anti-gay marriage Proposition 8 in 2008 even as a bigger majority voted for Obama. So egghead arguments about how redistricting will save the future of democracy won’t really land with the rancho libertarians I know. They want cheaper prices, and Trump isn’t delivering them — but neither is Newsom.
Latinos, as another cliche goes, aren’t a monolith. They could very well help Republicans win those extra congressional seats in Texas and do the same for Democrats in California.
But any politician betting that Latinos will automatically do what they’re expected to ... remind me what happens when you assume something?
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Ideas expressed in the piece
Latino voters consistently defy political expectations and resist being taken for granted by either party, demonstrating what the author terms “rancho libertarianism” - a blend of community values and individualism that makes them politically unpredictable. This independence has historically frustrated political leaders who assume they know how Latinos will vote.
Both Texas Republicans and California Democrats are making dangerous assumptions about Latino voting patterns in their redistricting efforts, potentially repeating past mistakes of underestimating Latino political independence. The GOP hopes South Texas Latinos will carry their Trump support into congressional races, while California Democrats expect Latinos to help them gain seats despite recent rightward shifts.
Trump’s declining popularity among Latinos suggests Texas Republicans may have miscalculated their redistricting strategy, as polling shows his Latino support dropping from 36% in February to 31% recently, with only 27% approving of his performance. This trend could render their gerrymandering efforts ineffective if it continues through 2026.
California’s redistricting push faces skepticism from the very Latino voters Democrats are counting on, with only 43% supporting Newsom’s plan according to polling - the lowest percentage of any ethnic group. Additionally, 29% of Latinos remain undecided, the highest uncertainty rate among all demographic groups.
Economic concerns rather than abstract democratic arguments drive Latino political behavior, as voters prioritize practical issues like affordable prices over partisan redistricting battles. Neither Trump nor Newsom is delivering the economic relief these communities seek, making their political loyalty uncertain.
Different views on the topic
Texas Republican legislators express confidence they can flip Latino-majority districts, with state GOP Rep. Mitch Little stating they can “carve out” three Hispanic-majority districts in South Texas for Republican leadership, viewing this as beneficial for both party and state while advancing Trump’s agenda[2].
Civil rights advocates argue that Texas’s redistricting constitutes illegal voter suppression that violates both the Voting Rights Act and Constitution, as districts where Latino voters could decide elections are being systematically dismantled despite Latinos becoming the state’s largest demographic group[1].
California Democratic leaders frame their redistricting effort as a necessary response to protect democracy against Trump’s power grab, with legislative leaders arguing they cannot “sit idly by while Republicans attempt to rig the electoral system” and must give voters the opportunity to fight back[3].
Latino political organizations and elected officials in California support the redistricting measures as essential for preserving representation, with Latino Caucus leaders emphasizing the need to ensure Latino communities are “truly empowered at the ballot box” and that redistricting efforts must strengthen Latino voices rather than diminish them[3].
Political analysts warn that Texas Republicans are creating “Potemkin majority-Latino districts” designed to dilute Latino political power by packing some voters into safe Democratic districts while splitting others among Republican-leaning areas, effectively reducing Latino electoral influence despite increasing their numerical presence in certain districts[1].
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