For the first time in quite some time, the major border city of McAllen, Texas, will now bed led by a Republican mayor.
Republicans were able to to win McAllen’s Mayor, in a run-off election on Saturday. The area of Texas has been a longtime democratic support system.
Javier Villalobos, a McAllen city commissioner, will replace Democrat Jim Darling as mayor of McAllen after beating fellow city commissioner Veronica Vela Whitacre in the run-off election.
It was reported that Villalobos only won by just 206 votes.
“It was a tight one, so I congratulate my opponent,” Villalobos said, according to the Progress Times. “It was a very well run campaign. But we’re very glad and fortunate that we prevailed.”
The results proves that Republican power in southern Texas has not slowed. In the 2020 election, former President Donald Trump made significant inroads with voters along the U.S.-Mexico border, which showed that south Texas voters are unsatisfied with Democratic policies and Democratic politicians who once had their support.
Also, McAllen is about 85% Hispanic, and Hidalgo County, in which McAllen lives, has historically voted for Democratic candidates by large margins in presidential elections.
In fact, Hillary Clinton defeated Donald Trump by more than 40% in 2016, while Barack Obama topped Mitt Romney by more than 40% in 2012 and John McCain by nearly 40% in 2008. Hidalgo County voters even voted for John Kerry in 2004 and Al Gore in 2000 over George W. Bush, despite Bush who had served as governor of Texas. The last time Republicans won Hidalgo County was in 1972.
Trump lost to Joe Biden by less than 20%, the smallest margin in the county since 2004, which shows a shift in voter sentiment at the border.
Political experts believe that a large political shift is taking place at the U.S.-Mexico border based of the presidential election results in 2020.
Along the Texas-Mexico border, “Trump won 14 of the 28 counties that Clinton had nearly swept in 2016 while winning by an average of 33 percentage points. This year those same counties went for Biden by an average of just 17 points,” reported by the Texas Tribune.
Representative Henry Cuellar (D-Texas), who represents a congressional district that borders Mexico, said south Texas residents, regardless of commonly supporting Democrats, are very similar to the demographic of Americans who supported Trump.
“Aside from Hispanic heritage, most of the Rio Grande Valley and South Texas have similar demographics to Trump’s strongholds in rural communities across the country,” Cuellar told the Texas Tribune. “It’s homogenous, deeply religious, pensively patriotic, socially conservative, and it’s hurting economically.”
Representative Vicente Gonzalez (D-Texas), who represents the congressional district that includes McAllen, agreed.
“Hispanics, especially Mexican Americans, they like this machismo, bravado, lucha libre-style politics — it’s like all-star wrestling, Trump style,” Gonzalez said. “It fits perfectly with the South Texas, Tejano person.”
The current migrant crisis may explain why a Republican will now take over McAllen.
Outgoing Democratic mayor Darling told USA Today that McAllen received the “brunt” of the migrant influx, considering its geographic location and its infrastructure network that permits migrants to travel further inland.
Representative Filemon Vela (D-Texas), who has since stated she will not seek re-election in 2022, also warned Democrats and where they stand in South Texas.
“Democrats have a big problem in Texas,” Vela said in January. “For the first time in generations, or maybe ever, we lost … South Texas counties with significant Hispanic populations. And we are going to have to … wrap our arms around exactly why that happened. It may be a difficult issue to reconcile.”