Democrats took control of both chambers of the US Congress and scored key down-ballot victories in Tuesday's midterm elections, and Latino voters were a major part of the coalition behind that result, according to BBC reporting. Exit polling cited by the BBC, conducted by a consortium that includes the Associated Press and other major outlets, indicates Hispanic backing for Democrats climbed 11 percentage points compared with 2024, wiping out the advantage Donald Trump had built with the same electorate during his reelection campaign. Vote counting was still underway as the BBC published its analysis.
Why it matters
The shift matters because it reverses a trend that had been building since the pandemic. In 2024, Trump drew close to 48% of Hispanic support, a historic showing that analysts attributed to his promises of tighter border enforcement, his economic message and a conservative-values appeal. Many heavily Hispanic counties across the country backed him. Two years later, the BBC reports, that movement appears to have swung sharply back toward the Democrats.
Mike Madrid, a political strategist and co-founder of The Lincoln Project, described the pattern on X as "realignment at full speed," according to the BBC. Madrid, author of The Latino Century: How America's Largest Minority Is Transforming Democracy, has argued that Hispanic voters trust neither major party and that this distrust produces increasingly large swings in how they cast ballots. The BBC notes that analysts broadly agree Latino voters were part of what commentators have called a "blue tsunami," an "electoral earthquake," or, in the words of some angry Republicans, a "disaster" for which they blame the president.
Texas: the epicenter
The most striking results came in Texas, a Republican stronghold where, according to the BBC, no Democrat had won a statewide office in more than three decades. Gina Hinojosa, 52, who is of Mexican descent, was elected governor, becoming the first Latina to hold the office. She defeated Republican Greg Abbott, a three-time governor and close Trump ally. The BBC reports that Hinojosa ran up her largest margins in the state's traditionally progressive urban centers — Austin, Houston and Dallas — but also won by several points in San Antonio and in the counties along the Mexican border where more than 80% of residents identify as Latino. That is the same southern Texas region that voted heavily for Trump in 2024, and Hinojosa invoked her roots there in her victory speech, saying she is a daughter of the Rio Grande Valley, where, in her words, people embody the work ethic and values of the state.
Álvaro J. Corral, a political scientist at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, told BBC Mundo that Hinojosa's win reflects the state's new demographic reality. Quardricos Driskell, a political science professor at George Washington University, told the BBC the twin Democratic victories in Texas were "absolutely historic," describing the outcome not merely as a referendum on Trump's first two years but as a clear signal that the country wants a different direction.
In the Senate race, 37-year-old state legislator James Talarico, a former teacher and Presbyterian seminarian, won a Texas seat, defeating Republican Ken Paxton, a former attorney general dogged by scandals. According to the BBC's breakdown of AP data, Talarico assembled a diverse coalition that included majorities of young voters and Hispanic voters. In an interview with Noticias Telemundo after his win, he credited the Latino community, saying he would not be heading to the Senate without Latino voters in the state.
The scale of the reversal is underscored by 2024 numbers: the BBC reports that Trump won 55% of the Latino vote in Texas that year, a record for a Republican presidential candidate and a 27-point increase over 2016, according to the Texas Politics Project.
A different kind of Democratic campaign
Another Democratic gain in Texas came from an unusual candidate. Bobby Pulido, a star of Tejano music turned politician, won back the 15th Congressional District for the party, according to the BBC. The district stretches from rural counties east of San Antonio to areas bordering Mexico. Pulido presented himself as old-fashioned, built his campaign around the economy, traveled through rural areas that had not seen a Democratic candidate in years, met with residents and performed at quinceañera parties. He unseated Republican Mónica Cruz, who had taken the seat in 2022.
The BBC's reporting also places the midterms in the context of immigration politics. The outlet's coverage links the results to a broader debate over the Trump administration's immigration offensive, with other Spanish-language outlets reporting that migrants turned out to vote with immigration policy and the economy on their minds. Post-election coverage also noted that Trump has said deportations will continue despite his party's defeat.
What to watch next: whether the 11-point swing toward Democrats holds in future elections, and how the incoming Congress handles immigration and the economy — the two issues the BBC identifies as central to Latino voters' decisions this cycle.
