RIO GRANDE CITY, Texas – A New York Times story says the gains Joe Biden made in the suburbs of the big cities of Texas were offset by more Hispanics voting for President Trump, particularly along the border.
The story zeroes in on the heavily Hispanic Texas-Mexico border region. It says Starr, a rural border county hit with high coronavirus rates this summer, had the biggest shift. Hillary Clinton won the county by 60 percentage points in 2016. Biden won it by a mere five.
David Wasserman, a journalist and election analyst with The Cook Political Report, was asked about Trump doing better among Hispanic voters during an appearance on MSNBC’s Morning Joe program.
Wasserman said: “We knew from the numbers we were seeing that Trump was likely to see an improvement among Hispanic voters, particularly Hispanic men. I think when we unpack all the numbers we’ll see that there was a really large gender gap among Hispanic voters. There is also a big difference between how rural Hispanic voters look at the race and how more urban, and central city, and higher income Hispanics viewed the contest.”
Wasserman added: “Look, the margins that we saw for Biden, not only in Miami but in South Texas and along the border were catastrophic for Democrats there. I don’t know that it is enough to say that it cost Joe Biden the state of Texas when the margin is hovering around six points. But, it certainly played a role in Texas being decisively in Trump’s column.”
Here is the intro to the New York Times story:
Hispanic Voters Deliver a Texas Win for Trump
NEW YORK TIMES: Demographic changes and a suburban backlash did not stop President Trump from taking the Lone Star State, though with a smaller margin than in 2016. Even as urban and suburban areas moved in large numbers toward Democrats, many Hispanic voters in the south abruptly exited the Democratic coalition.
The Rio Grande Valley shifted decisively toward Mr. Trump, as heavily Hispanic areas along the border with Mexico, including Hidalgo, home to McAllen, delivered enough votes to help cancel the impact of white voters in urban and suburban areas.
Starr, a rural border county hit with high coronavirus rates this summer, had the biggest shift. Hillary Clinton won the county by 60 percentage points in 2016; Joseph R. Biden Jr. won it by a mere five. Other border counties, including Maverick, Hidalgo and Cameron, also swung heavily right, compared with 2016.
Editor’s Note: To read the full story by New York Times reporters Keith Collins, Ford Fessenden, Lazaro Gamio, John Keefe, Denise Lu, Eleanor Lutz, Amy Schoenfeld Walker, Derek Watkins, and Karen Yourish, click here.
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