Within the first two months of 2026, Americans have witnessed multiple controversies, two regime-changing military interventions without congressional approval, and the rising prices of basic goods and services.
The laundry list of issues this administration has struggled to properly address has impacted voter turnout, encouraging many Americans to make their voices heard at the ballot box.
The unpredictable impact of American approval in the upcoming midterms is difficult to gauge, but examining the results of the recent Primary Election is a good barometer of the American public’s opinion of the Trump administration.
Texas Primary Results
Due in part to recent frustrations over the Trump administration’s policies, the national shift favoring the GOP that culminated in Trump’s 2024 election has seemingly begun to reverse course, with some key state and local races producing interesting results.
In Texas, Greg Abbott has received the Republican nomination by an overwhelming majority, with a total of 1,759,949 votes within his party, to the surprise of a few.
However, Brownsville native Gina Hinojosa has won the Democratic nomination by similar margins within her party, setting up an interesting midterm election between herself and the 11-year incumbent Governor that may heat up as we approach November.
Gina Hinojosa promotes her platform as one that emphasizes working-class families and democratic values. In recent speeches to her constituents, she highlighted Greg Abbott’s support of a new form of licensing, which allows detention facilities in Texas to detain children along with their families –seen recently with the two teenage boys from Mcallen, detained by ICE in a detention facility after being invited to D.C last year by Monica De La Cruz to play mariachi at the nation’s capital.
Ms. Hinojosa argues that these arbitrary detentions are not so much about cruelty as they are about profit.
“The governor [Abbott] created a new licensing for the detention of children. This came after he got $55,000 from private prison companies, who make a profit off of every person they detain– there is profit motive behind these ICE raids,” the gubernatorial candidate stated on her social media.
If elected, Ms. Hinojosa would be the first Democratic governor of Texas since Ann Richards, who served from 1991 to 1995.
In what was seen as a complete toss-up race, James Talarico secured the Democratic nomination for Texas Senate against the popular liberal firebrand Jasmine Crockett.
Following Mr. Talarico’s electoral victory, President Trump posted on Truth Social, calling the Presbyterian Seminarian a “radical leftist” that Republicans had to “TOTALLY FOCUS on putting him away, quickly and decisively!”
All things considered, Talarico seems poised to have one of the closest and most contentious races in the nation this coming November.
Results in the RGV
Zooming into the Rio Grande Valley’s 34th District, Vicente Gonzalez held onto the Democratic nomination against the up-and-coming progressive candidate, Etienne Rosas, who was challenging him for the congressional position. The final tally was 35,249 votes for Gonzalez to Rosas’ 20,949 votes.
At an election watch party on Tuesday night, Rosas acknowledged the election results, stating, “[We] have to concede this election. Elections at the end of the day are an exercise in democracy,” as well as continuing his rallying cry against the incumbent “the system as it stands is not reflecting the voice of the people, but rather that of a few”. He ended his speech by thanking those who helped build and support his grassroots campaign that began in November of 2025.
Vicente Gonzalez will attempt to hold his seat against the Republican and Trump-endorsed challenger Eric Flores in the November Midterms.
In the 15th Congressional District, which includes McAllen, Bobby Pulido won the Democratic nomination against Dr. Ada Cuellar, with 36,860 votes to her 17,713 votes. The Tejano singer will go up against Republican Monica De La Cruz in November.
Mr. Pulido has been criticized for his moderate stance relative to other Democrats, but many Valley locals see him as a viable opportunity to counter the Republican incumbent.
In the 28th Congressional District, which includes parts of Hidalgo and Starr counties, Incumbent Henry Cuellar has mirrored Vicente Gonzalez’s victory and held onto his seat. He will go up against Republican Tano Tijerna in November.
With no clear exit strategy from the current military campaign in the Middle East—which has shut down the vital shipping bottleneck of the Strait of Hormuz and continues to stoke fears of an economic recession—the GOP’s newfound Latino voter base in the borderlands may prove to be a one-off phenomenon as long as prices stay high and campaign promises remain unfulfilled.
