(The Center Square) Newly elected Texas Republican U.S. Rep. Mayra Flores has a higher net favorability among Hispanic voters in the U.S. than U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., according to a new poll.
Media strategist Giancarlo Sopo said his firm teamed up with polling firm, WPA Intelligence, “to conduct a national poll of Hispanic voters on behalf of Bienvenido U.S.”
“One of our most interesting findings,” he said, was that Flores, the first Republican elected in the Rio Grande Valley in her Texas district, “has a higher net favorability than AOC among Hispanics who know them.”
Flores was the first Mexican-born congresswoman ever elected to the U.S. House in history. She was elected in a special election in June and is running for reelection in a new district in November. She is one of three Republican women running with hopes of flipping three Texas border districts red.
In west Texas, two life-long female Hispanic Democrat judges in border counties switched parties to run for reelection as Republicans. Both judges were among the first to declare an invasion at the southern border on July 5, citing an imminent threat to the lives of their residents.
According to the poll, Flores has a national favorability rating of 38.1% and an unfavorability rating of 24.5%. AOC has a favorability rating of 42.3% compared to an unfavorability rating of 36.3%.
He also notes that 54% of likely Hispanic voters in the entire U.S. primarily live in three states: California, Texas and Florida. Roughly 23% of likely Hispanic voters live in swing states, Sopo says.
His firm’s findings come after a recent Texas Latinos Conservatives poll that found that the majority of registered Hispanic Texas voters said the Republican Party better aligns with their values. According to the poll, the Republican Party held a 15-point lead over the Democrat Party for being most associated with “hard work;” an 8-point lead for supporting small business owners; a 7-point lead for fixing the immigration system; a 3-point lead for “protecting my way of life.”
The poll also found that more than 60% of Hispanics said they are bothered by the direction of the Democratic Party; 57% support tougher border security measures, and the majority, by a 3-to-1 margin, support more oil and gas exploration in Texas.
“Democrats assume Hispanics are monolithic, but we are as diverse as America, and we are seeing the momentum build all across all our Latino communities for conservative candidates,” Orlando Sanchez, founder of Texas Latino Conservatives, said in a recent statement. “The more we vote our values, the more we vote Republican.”
According to a new analysis published by Echelon Insights, a record turnout is expected for the midterm elections of roughly 125,655,745 voters. Echelon’s estimate, it says, “represents a continuation of the pattern of the record-breaking turnout we saw in the 2018 and 2020 elections.”
The estimate includes a district-by-district breakdown of voter turnout by demographic groups, which it says “aren’t simply Census estimates of the demographics of registered voters or adults in a district, but figures adjusted for the population of voters who will cast votes on or before November 8th” according to its methodology.
The greatest percentage of likely registered Hispanic voters expected to vote in November – 29% – are in New Mexico, although numerically this translates to only 207,000 voters.
Hispanic voters are expected to account for 24% of California voters, 20% of Texas voters and 15% of Florida voters. This translates to over 3.2 million Hispanics voting in California, over 1.7 million voting in Texas and over 1.3 million voting in Florida, according to Echelon’s estimates.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said earlier this year that two Democratic judges in Texas border counties who switched parties did so because of President Joe Biden’s “failed open border policies.” Terrell County Judge Dale Carruthers and Presidio County Judge Cinderela Guevara are running for re-election as Republicans, he said, “joining a growing number of Hispanics who have walked away from the Democratic Party. Together, we’ll secure the future of Texas.”
