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      ‘No loyalties here’: Latino voters to play crucial role in Texas races

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      ‘No loyalties here’: Latino voters to play crucial role in Texas races Democrats are hoping to win a statewide election for the first time since 1994, but courting Latino votes will be more important than everJobs, healthcare and the cost of living drive voter turnout in Texas.And, for these upcoming midterm elections, that has left political candidates to tread a fine line between the values of their national parties and those held by voters whose interests lie more and more outside rigid Democratic and Republican lines.Are Latino voters really moving right? The end of Roe may muddy the pictureRead moreThat was clear on a hot afternoon this September that saw a crowd of more than a dozen volunteers walk the streets of a neighborhood in Pharr, Texas, passing out flyers and talking up the Democratic candidate for the district 15 US House of Representatives seat, one of the most competitive races in the country. Many are waiting to see if the party can preserve or will surrender its thin advantages in both congressional chambers.Michelle Vallejo is a young 31-year-old progressive running in the Rio Grande valley, a region which was thought to be a Democratic stronghold for many years, until the redrawing of districts and ever-diverging parties tested alliances.Janie Garza, 67, avoided political engagement until she volunteered for Vallejo’s campaign that sweltering September afternoon. “I’ve never done this before and it’s really hot,” Garza said. “I’ve never been involved in any politics but Michelle really inspired me.”Incidentally, Garza was canvassing in the neighborhood she grew up in as a child. After getting married and starting a family, she moved further away, but with her children now grown and having lives of their own, Garza felt compelled to try to usher change.“It’s hard to hear of a woman who is looking out for our wellbeing, especially here in the valley,” Garza said about Vallejo. Referring to the culture of machismo – strong masculinity – that still persists in some Latino communities, Garza added: “It’s more of a man-type of group.”The Rio Grande valley is a sprawl of four counties – Hidalgo, Cameron, Starr and Willacy – with a mostly Latino population of more than 1 million people and about 700,000 registered voters.Poverty rates there are more than double the national average. The uninsured rate is about three times over the national average. And people earn between $14,000 (£12,360) to $18,000 (£15,890) annually, far below the $35,000 (£30,899) made each year by Americans in other parts of the country.Keeping the loyalty of voters there is essential if Democrats want to finally win a statewide Texas election for the first time since 1994 – or for Republicans to push that specter further away than ever.Politics are not top of mind for many people whose doors are knocked on. In Hidalgo county, where Vallejo canvassed, more than 43% of registered voters did not cast a ballot in the 2020 election that brought Joe Biden into power.On that September day, a few residents opened their doors to the volunteers. But most didn’t answer, and the volunteers left their flyers at the door or at the gate.One time, two young men who greeted the volunteers said that they don’t vote.“I have two boys,” Garza said. “I’m kind of in the middle, because one of them is a Republican and the other one is a Democrat. So, which one am I going to call today and tell them that I block-walked?” she said, laughing.That is because Garza – like many voters in south Texas – struggles with labels.“Actually, I’ve always been one to look at the individual,” Garza said when asked about her political affiliation, “but I think now with Michelle, I think I’m going to say that I’m with her party. So, Democrat.”Reevaluating how they voteMany of the candidates in the valley run as Democrats, especially in local races. But the Republican party – whose anti-immigrant rhetoric around the US-Mexico border can turn off some Latino voters – has made some gains there in recent years, hammering home a message of jobs and prices.“We did see some voters swing, you know, from the left to the right,” Vallejo said. “But I also feel like voters in general have started to reevaluate how they vote.”Vallejo describes herself as a Christian but supports giving women nationwide a right to choose whether an abortion is right for them – a concept that the US supreme court eliminated with its June ruling to reverse the 1973 landmark case Roe v Wade.Ad campaign targets Latino voters as key bloc for Democrats in midtermsRead moreBefore she began her campaign, Vallejo had an earnest conversation with her religious grandmother who opposes abortion. She knew she would have to repeat much of that talk with the largely Catholic demographic in her district whose views on the issue align more with the GOP.“Democrats, and even some of the Democrats and other parts of Texas like Houston, Dallas, Austin, they think because the majority of south Texas and valley residents are Hispanic, that that means they’re liberals or progressives, and they’re not,” Democratic strategist Colin Strother said.Strother’s experience spans local, state and federal election that includes the most recent race for the famously moderate Democrat, US House representative Henry Cuellar, who ran in a primary each of the last two cycles and has won only narrowly over a progressive challenger.Cuellar’s trademark is his straddling of defining party issues. Notably, he champions messaging that opposes abortion rights, breaking with more progressive Democrats who embrace the pro-choice label.Meanwhile, he and another valley congressman, Vicente Gonzalez, voted against a bill aiming to ban semi-automatic weapons. They were among only five Democrats in the chamber to oppose the bill, which was proposed after a series of deadly mass shootings and ultimately failed in the Senate.And they were the only US House representatives from Texas to break with their respective party on the vote.Those positions are reflected at the state legislative level too. A recently retired state senator, Eddie Lucio Jr, voted last year in favor of Texas’ controversial “heartbeat” bill, which made abortions illegal if a fetal heartbeat could be detected and made no exceptions for victims of rape or incest.Ultrasounds can detect a fetal heartbeat at six weeks, though many don’t even know they’re pregnant at that point.“They are not a rubber stamp for any one political party,” Strother added. “There are aspects of the Republican platform that they support and agree with. There are aspects of the Democratic platform that they support and agree with.”Strother said much of the misconception about south Texas voters and their reality as an increasingly purple – rather than blue or red – electorate comes from the repeated wins for Democrats in the area.People tend to vote blue in the valley because “they [want] to be able to have a say in their local elections”, where candidates have the tendency to run as Democrats, Strother said. “They are not liberals. They’re not progressives. And that’s the big disconnect in our party. And, you know, the state party – and Texas – has ignored that region for decades.”During the summer, the Democrats lost a key race in south Texas when Republican newcomer Mayra Flores, a respiratory care practitioner by trade, won a special election made necessary by US House representative Filemon Vela stepping down during an unexpired term representing the state’s 34th district.‘No loyalties here’Redistricting has set up a rare race in which Flores is facing fellow incumbent Gonzalez, who’s been essentially moved out of his 15th district seat. Meanwhile, in the redrawn 15th district, Vallejo is squaring off with Republican candidate Monica De La Cruz, whom the GOP hopes can capitalize on social values which frequently clash with the Democratic party’s key positions.“There are no loyalties here,” Flores said of her district. “Our loyalties in south Texas are with God, it’s with our families, it’s with our communities, not with the political party.”Flores brought novelty to the race as a Latina Republican and an immigrant born south of the border in Burgos, Mexico.Regardless of the outcome of that race, elections like Flores’ in south Texas were likely going to be competitive anyway, Republican strategist Matt Mackowiak said.“I think they were going to be competitive either way because of the shift that you’re seeing in that region,” Mackowiak said. “But I do think that Mayra’s victory created belief, you know, to a greater extent than probably people felt before.”Mackowiak, who has worked in his field for the last 13 years, said he saw the political tea leaves turning red during a 2018 campaign he helped run. Pete Flores, a Republican, ran in a special election for the district 19 seat of the state senate, an area that covers western south Texas.“You know, that was the canary in the coalmine, that race,” Mackowiak said. “And I think it showed that an authentic, credible Hispanic Republican, if they do the work, can win in that part of our state.”Pete Flores took 56% of votes for a seat previously held by a Democrat who had admitted to taking bribes.Mayra Flores’ victorious Pentecostal Christian, anti-abortion, pro-gun, pro-law enforcement and pro-oil and gas platform was another lesson for Republicans. Many of those political stances are tough for Democrats to take while staying in line with the party’s broader federal agenda.“I know they learned a lot from … the tactics that were used, the data that was collected, and that will apply to what they’re doing now and through the rest of the fall election,” Mackowiak said.Strother, the Democratic strategist, acknowledged that Dan Sanchez’s defeat to Mayra Flores stung his party and predicted Republicans would use both her past success and her current re-election campaign to reinforce their goals for south Texas.“They were going to make sure they won that special to keep that narrative going to try to make that narrative real, even if it’s not real yet,” Strother said. “And the Democrats took a nap. And you know, we lost a race that we should have won.”Some believe the redistricting last year that changed the boundaries around south Texas – including the Rio Grande valley, something made possible because the GOP controls the state legislature and the governor’s mansion – created opportunities for Republicans to gain a foothold. “They started lowering the Republican number in their super safe districts, so they could reallocate those Republicans into districts that might not be safe,” Strother said.As a result, some districts considered safe Democrat wins are now toss-ups. While strategists continue to watch the money poured into races, TV ads bought, and polls gauging a party’s winning chances, local candidates feel confident they know their prospective constituents.Mayra Flores walked through Cameron county neighborhoods and heard from elderly men forced out of retirement and back into the labor force by the rising cost of living. She said she spoke with a mother who took out a loan to pay for her children’s back-to-school clothing – and with residents in Brownsville whose utility bills grew from $300 to $900 (£265 to £795).“The district is 90% Hispanic – I am looking after my people,” Flores said.Her campaign emphasizes her identifying with border culture.A recent TV ad in support of Flores takes place at a family carne asada – or cookout – which is a staple of Latino households, particularly Mexican ones.“I’m raza,” Flores said, using the Spanish word for “race” to signal that she’s one with the border’s unique culture.Flores hopes Rio Grande valley voters could be swayed by someone who looks and sounds like them – but represents a political perspective that is different from past successful ones.“We need Hispanics on both sides,” Flores said, referring to political parties. “We need equal representation. Nothing will pass [congress] if you don’t have a voice on both sides.”TopicsUS midterm elections 2022The Latino voteUS politicsTexasfeaturesReuse this content More

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      The ‘Sleeping Giant’ That May Decide the Midterms

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      The choices made by Latino voters on Nov. 8 will be crucial to the outcome in a disproportionate share of Senate battleground states, like Arizona (31.5 percent of the population), Nevada (28.9), Florida (25.8), Colorado (21.7), Georgia (9.6) and North Carolina (9.5).According to most analysts, there is no question that a majority of Hispanic voters will continue to support Democratic candidates. The question going into the coming election is how large that margin will be.In terms of the battle for control of the House, three Hispanic-majority congressional districts in South Texas — the 15th, 28th and 34th — have become proving grounds for Republican candidates challenging decades of Democratic dominance. In a special election in the 34th district in June, the Republican candidate, Mayra Flores, prevailed.Two weeks ago, The Texas Tribune reported that:Since Labor Day, outside G.O.P. groups have blasted the Democratic nominees on multiple fronts, criticizing them all as weak on border issues and then zeroing in on candidate-specific vulnerabilities. Democratic groups are countering in two of the races, though for now, it is Republicans who appear to be in a more offensive posture.Last week, Axios reported that in the 15th Congressional district, which is 81.9 percent Hispanic, national Democratic groups had begun to abandon its nominee as a lost cause:Texas Democrat Michelle Vallejo, a progressive running in a majority-Hispanic Rio Grande Valley district against Republican Monica de la Cruz, isn’t getting any Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee support in her Trump +3 district. House Majority PAC is planning to cancel the scheduled ad reservations for her at the end of the month, according to a source familiar with the group’s plans.Across a wide range of studies and exit poll data analyses, there is general agreement that President Donald Trump significantly improved his 2016 margin among Hispanic voters in 2020, although there is less agreement on how large his gain was, on the demographics of his new supporters, or on whether the movement was related to Trump himself, Trump-era Covid payments or to a secular trend.In their July 2022 paper “Reversion to the Mean, or their Version of the Dream? An Analysis of Latino Voting in 2020,” Bernard L. Fraga, Yamil R. Velez and Emily A. West, political scientists at Emory, Columbia and the University of Pittsburgh, write that there isan increasing alignment between issue positions and vote choice among Latinos. Moreover, we observe significant pro-Trump shifts among working-class Latinos and modest evidence of a pro-Trump shift among newly-engaged U.S.-born Latino children of immigrants and Catholic Latinos. The results point to a more durable Republican shift than currently assumed.That is, the more Hispanic voters subordinate traditional party and ethnic solidarity in favor of voting based on conservative or moderate policy preferences, the more likely that are to defect to the Republican Party.The authors caution, however, that nothing is fixed in stone:On the one hand, there is evidence that working-class Latino voters became more supportive of Trump in 2020, mirroring increases in educational polarization among the mass public. If similar processes are at play for Latinos — and if such polarization is not Trump-specific — then this could mean a durable change in partisan loyalties.On the other hand, they continue,Historical voting patterns among Latinos reveal natural ebbs and flows. Using exit poll data from 1984-2020, political scientist Alan Abramowitz finds that the pro-Democratic margin among Latinos ranges from +9 in 2004 to +51 in 1996, with an average margin of +35 points. Instead of reflecting a durable shift, 2020 could be a “reversion to the mean,” with 2016 serving as a recent high-water mark for the Democrats.In an email responding to my inquiry about future trends, Fraga wrote:My sense is that most of the Latinos who shifted to the Republican Party in 2020 have not returned to the Democratic Party. Many of these new Republican converts were ideologically conservative pre-2020, so Republicans didn’t have to shift their policy message very much to win them over.“Portrait of a Persuadable Latino” — an April 2021 study by the nonprofit Equis Research of Hispanic defections from the Democratic Party — found similar overall trends to those reported in the Fraga-Velez-West paper, but revealed slightly different demographic patterns.The Equis survey found that the largest percentage tilt toward Trump was among women, at plus 8 percent, compared with men, at 3 percent; among non-college Latinos, plus 6, compared with just 1 percent among the college educated; among Protestants, plus seven compared with plus 5 among Catholics and plus 15 percent among conservative Hispanics — compared with no tilt among liberals and a plus 4 percent tilt among moderates.Carlos Odio, co-founder and senior vice president at Equis Labs, a nonprofit committed “to massively increase civic participation among Latinos in this country,” emailed a response to my query about Hispanic voter trends:While Latinos shifted toward Republicans between 2016 and 2020, an 8-point swing toward Trump, we do not see evidence of a further decrease in Democratic support since Biden’s win. In most states, things do not look worse for Dems with Latinos than they did in the last election, nor do they look better.But, Odio pointedly cautioned,The political environment has the potential to lead to further erosion of Democratic support among Latinos. A meaningful share of Latino voters remain on the fence, having not firmly chosen a side in the election. These late breakers could move toward either party, or toward the couch, before the midterms are over.Odio sent me a September 2022 Equis report, “Latino Voters in Limbo — A Midterm Update,” which found thatYoung Latinos (18-34), Latino men, and self-identified conservatives are overrepresented among the 2020 Biden voters who today disapprove of the president’s job performance. Among the most likely to be undecided today are ideological holdouts: conservative and moderate Latinos who have held back from Republicans, despite seeming to share some characteristics with their G.O.P.-supporting white counterparts. Notably Republicans have not increased support among these Latinos in the last year in almost any state — likely because a large majority of conservative or moderate Latinos who don’t yet vote Republican believe Democrats “care more about people like them.”Today, the report continues, “what keeps many Latinos on the fence is again concerns about the economy and fears that Democrats don’t consistently prioritize the economy, handle it as decisively as business-obsessed Republicans, or value hard work.”A separate Equis study, “2020 Post-Mortem: The American Dream Voter,” found that a negative attitude toward socialism was a factor among Hispanics nationwide, especially among those who stress the importance of working hard to get ahead:There isn’t one overriding concern about “socialism”— but a package of complaints usually rises to the top around government control over people’s lives, raising taxes, and money going to ‘undeserving’ recipients. If a through line exists, it is a worry over people becoming “lazy and dependent on government’ by those who highly value hard work.”The American Dream Voter study found that the declining salience of immigration in 2020 compared with either 2016 or 2018, combined with the debate in 2020 over Covid lockdowns versus reopening the economy, diminished ethnic solidarity in 2020, allowing conservative Hispanics to shift their allegiance to the Republican Party:The economy unlocked a door: the issue landscape shifted to more favorable ground for Trump, opening a way for some Latinos who found it unacceptable to vote for him in 2016. The socialism attack broke through: it created a space for defection,” according to the report’s authors. “Democrats retain some natural credibility with Latino voters but have lost ground on workers, work and the American Dream; they’re also open to attack for taking Hispanics for granted; Republicans have some openings but are still held back by their image as the uncaring party of big corporations.In 2016, the study continued,some Latinos who we might predict would vote Republican — based on their demographics, partisanship and ideology — were held back from supporting Trump by (a) opposition to his hard-line immigration positions and (b) the importance of their Hispanic identity. By the middle of 2020, neither views on immigration nor the role of Hispanic identity were showing a major effect on vote choice — they were no longer cleanly differentiating Trump voters from Democratic voters.In 2018, according to the study, “Trump lost even the conservatives on family separation. But family separation was not front-and-center by the end of the (2020) election. Reopening the economy — one of Trump’s most popular planks with Latino voters — was.”A 2021 Pew Research report found that Latinos view anti-Hispanic discrimination differently from anti-Black discrimination. Hispanic voters were asked whether “there was ‘too much,’ ‘about the right amount’ or ‘too little’ attention paid to race and racial issues” when it comes to Hispanics and then asked the same question about Black Americans.Just over half, 51 percent, of Latino respondents said, “too little” attention is paid to discrimination against Hispanics, 28 percent said, “about the right amount” and 19 percent said, “too much.” Conversely, 30 percent of Latino respondents said that in the case of Black Americans, “too little” attention is paid to discrimination, 23 percent said, “about the right amount” and 45 percent said, “too much.”The American Dream Voter survey Equis performed found that when Hispanics were asked “which concerns you more, Democrats embracing socialism/leftist policies or Republicans embracing fascist/anti-democratic policies,” 42 percent of Latinos said socialism/leftist policies and 38 percent said fascist/anti-democratic politics.Equis did find substantial Democratic advantages when Hispanics were asked which party is “better for Hispanics” (53-31), which “is the party of fairness and equality” (51-31) and which party “cares about people like you” (49-32). But the Democratic advantage shrank to statistical insignificance on key bread-and- butter issues: which party “values hard work” 42-40 and “which is the party of the American dream” 41-39, and a dead 42-42 heat on “which party is better for the American worker?”Last month, Pew Research released a survey that showed continuing Democratic strength among Hispanics, “Most Latinos Say Democrats Care About Them and Work Hard for Their Vote, Far Fewer Say So of G.O.P.”Pew found that over the past four years, Democrats experienced a modest gain in partisan identification among Hispanics over Republicans, going from 62-34 (+28) in 2018 to 63-32 (+31) in 2022.From March 2022 to August 2022, the share of Latinos identifying abortion as a “very important issue” shot up from 42 to 57 percent in response to the Supreme Court’s decision’s decision in Dobbs in June. Hispanics favor abortion rights by a 57-40 margin, slightly smaller than the split among all voters, 62-36, according to Pew.At the same time, the percentage of Latino respondents listing violent crime among the most important issues rose from 61 to 70 percent; support for gun control rose from 59 to 66 percent; and concern over voter suppression rose from 51 to 59 percent.Registered Latino voters split 53-26 in favor of voting for a generic Democratic congressional candidate over a generic Republican, according to Pew, but there were striking religious differences: Catholics, who make up 47 percent of the Hispanic electorate, favored a generic Democratic House candidate 59-26; evangelical Protestants, 24 percent of Hispanics, backed Republicans 50-32; Latinos with little or no religious affiliation, 23 percent, backed Democrats 60-17.Matt A. Barreto, a professor of political science and Chicana/o & Central American Studies at U.C.L.A, pointed to data in the Oct. 2 National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials weekly Latino voter poll:Indeed if you look at issues like access to abortion, student debt, immigrant rights and gun violence, there are no signs at all that Latinos are becoming more conservative. When asked about government policy, 70 to 80 percent of Latino voters give support to the Democratic Party policy agenda. Indeed for the fourth week in a row, the NALEO tracking poll shows that abortion rights are the number two most important issue to Latino voters in 2022 and issues such as mass shootings and lowering the costs of health care are top 5 issues as well.Trump’s 2020 gains reflected “a clear pattern that concern over the Covid economic slowdown helped Trump make temporary gains with Latino voters,” Barreto argued. “Because so many were negatively impacted by the slumping economy in 2020, Trump was able to convince at least some Latinos that he would reopen the economy faster.”Despite those improvements, Barreto contended, “the reality is that Trump’s gains in 2020 were not part of any pattern of realignment or ideological shift among Latinos. As the national economy continues to recover and improve, Biden favorability continues to recover among Latinos.”In September 2020. Ian F. Haney López, a law professor at the University of California- Berkeley, wrote an essay for The Times with Tory Gavito, president of Way to Win, a liberal advocacy group. They wrote that when they asked white, Black and Hispanic votershow “convincing” they found a dog-whistle message lifted from Republican talking points. The message condemned “illegal immigration from places overrun with drugs and criminal gangs “and called for “fully funding the police, so our communities are not threatened by people who refuse to follow our laws.” Almost three out of five white respondents judged the message convincing. More surprising, exactly the same percentage of African Americans agreed, as did an even higher percentage of Latinos.In other words, Haney López and Gavito wrote, “Mr. Trump’s competitiveness among Latinos is real.” Progressives, they continued,commonly categorize Latinos as people of color, no doubt partly because progressive Latinos see the group that way and encourage others to do so as well. Certainly, we both once took that perspective for granted. Yet in our survey, only one in four Hispanics saw the group as people of color. In contrast, the majority rejected this designation. They preferred to see Hispanics as a group integrating into the American mainstream, one not overly bound by racial constraints but instead able to get ahead through hard work.I asked Haney López about the current political and partisan state of play among Hispanic voters going into the 2022 election. He emailed me his reply:As with white voters, the most important predictors of support for Republicans track racial resentment as well as anxiety over racial status. Rather than an ideological sorting, we are witnessing a racial sorting among Latinos — not in terms of anything so simple as skin color, but rather, in terms of those who seek a higher status for themselves by more closely identifying on racial grounds with the white mainstream, versus those who give less priority to race, or even see Latinos as a nonwhite racial group.Some Latinos, Haney López continued,are susceptible to Republican propaganda promoting social conflict and distrust. The greatest failure of the Democratic Party with respect to Latinos, and indeed the polity generally, is its failure to pursue policies and to stress stories that build social solidarity, especially across lines of race, class, and other wedge identities, including gender and sexual identity.Asked the same set of questions, Marcelo Suárez-Orozco, chancellor of the University of Massachusetts-Boston and a former dean of the U.C.L.A. Graduate School of Education & Information Studies, had a somewhat different take.By email, Suárez-Orozco wrote:I am unpersuaded by the claim that Hispanics are becoming more conservative. To be more precise, over time, they are becoming more American. The holy trinity of integration: language, marriage patterns, and connectivity to the labor market tell a powerful story. Over time, Hispanics mimic mainstream norms. They are learning English much faster than Italians did a century and a half ago, they are marrying outside their ethnicity at very significant rates, and their connectivity to the labor market is very muscular.To Suárez-Orozco, Latinos in the United States are primed to play an ever more significant role — in politics and everywhere else: “The dominant metaphor on Hispanics qua elections over the last half-century has been ‘the sleeping giant.’ When the sleeping giants wakes up: Alas, s/he is us.”The question is whether this sleeping giant will move to the right or to the left. The evidence points both ways — but this is not a contest the Democrats can afford lose.The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the editor. We’d like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles. Here are some tips. And here’s our email: letters@nytimes.com.Follow The New York Times Opinion section on Facebook, Twitter (@NYTopinion) and Instagram. More

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      Texas Fort Hood to be renamed for US army’s first Latino four-star general

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      Texas Fort Hood to be renamed for US army’s first Latino four-star generalThe facility, named for the late retired general Richard Cavazos, will become the first to honor a Latino service member The US army’s first Latino four-star general is set to become the namesake of the country’s largest active-duty armored military base, replacing the Confederate leader after whom the facility was originally named.In a recent memo to top military brass at the Pentagon, US defense secretary Lloyd Austin said officials had until 1 January 2024 to implement a recommendation to change the name of Texas’s Fort Hood to Fort Cavazos, honoring the late retired general Richard Cavazos.West Point’s Ku Klux Klan plaque should be removed, commission saysRead moreThe base long named after John Bell Hood – who served the Confederacy – is just one of multiple military installations and facilities that the US defense department has been asked to rename by the Naming Commission, created by Congress to remove symbols commemorating Confederate figures.Eight other military bases whose names were inspired by Confederates who betrayed the United States while waging and losing the US civil war will be renamed as well.There has been a broad push to remove public symbols of the Confederacy after the 2017 killing of a counter protester during a white supremacist rally opposing the removal of a Confederate Gen Robert E Lee statue in Charlottesville, Virginia. The killings of nine people at a Black church in Charleston, South Carolina, in 2015 also helped spark the push.Austin’s memo said the bases’ names should “fully reflect the history and the values of the United States and commemorate the best of the republic that we are all sworn to protect”.The fort destined to be renamed after Cavazos houses about 40,000 soldiers and sits in Bell county, Texas, where Latino residents make up more than a quarter of the population.Since its permanent establishment in 1950, the fort commemorated the commander of the Confederate army’s Texas brigade during the civil war. But it will now be named after a Mexican American native of Texas who served the US army in the Korean and Vietnam wars.In Korea, as a first lieutenant, he earned the Distinguished Service Cross – the American military’s second highest citation for valor – for repeatedly returning to a battlefield to personally evacuate soldiers that were wounded while fighting along his side, according to the Naming Commission.He earned another Distinguished Service Cross in Vietnam, where he had attained the rank of lieutenant colonel, for leading soldiers through an ambush, organizing a counterattack that repulsed their enemies and exposing himself to hostile fire numerous times in the process.Later, Cavazos – who also taught military science as part of the reserve officers training corps at Texas Tech – became the US army’s first Latino brigadier general in 1973. Among his roles was commanding soldiers based out of the fort slated to be renamed after him.He became the Army’s first Latino four-star general in 1982 and was put in charge of sustaining, training and deploying all the forces that the Army could deploy at the time.Cavazos retired in 1984 after a 33-year career in the army, which also saw him accumulate two Legions of Merit, a Silver Star, five Bronze Stars and a Purple Heart, among other medals for service in war and peacetime. He spent his retirement in Texas before his death in 2017 in San Antonio.“Richard Cavazos’s service demonstrates excellence at every level,” the Naming Commission wrote in a summary of the late four-star general’s career. “His 20th-century service will inspire soldiers as they continue those traditions of excellence into the 21st.”US House representative Joaquin Castro – a Democrat from San Antonio – pushed for Fort Hood to be renamed after Cavazos and received support from the congressional Hispanic Caucus. When that push began, no US military bases had been named in honor of a Latino service member.Other name change recommendations include renaming Georgia’s Fort Gordon to Fort Eisenhower after Dwight Eisenhower, who led the army during the second world war and later became president; North Carolina’s Fort Bragg to Fort Liberty; and Virginia’s Fort AP Hill to Fort Walker after Dr Mary Edwards Walker, the surgeon, prisoner of war and women’s voting rights advocate.TopicsUS militaryTexasRaceUS politicsnewsReuse this content More

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      ‘The Run-Up’: Can Democrats Catch up to Years of Republican Unity?

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      Listen and follow ‘The Run-Up’Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Stitcher | Amazon MusicOn today’s episode: How the Republican grass roots got years ahead of a changing country, and whether the Democrats can catch up.Emil Lippe for The New York TimesGuestsJ. David Goodman, The Times’s Houston bureau chief, covering Texas.Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, Democrat of New York.Background ReadingPatriot Mobile, a Christian cellphone company, is spending money to promote conservative views on race and gender in schools. Read J. David Goodman’s reporting on how the company has become a rising force in Texas politics.Buoyed by polls that show the end of Roe v. Wade has moved independent voters their way, Democrats in difficult re-election races are reorienting their campaigns around abortion rights.Credits“The Run-Up” is hosted by More

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      How a Christian Cellphone Company Became a Rising Force in Texas Politics

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      GRAPEVINE, Texas — Ahead of what would usually be a sleepy spring school board election, a mass of fliers appeared on doorsteps in the Fort Worth suburbs, warning of rampant “wokeness” and “sexually explicit books” in schools, and urging changes in leadership.The fliers were part of a broad effort to shift the ideological direction of school boards in a politically crucial corner of Texas, made possible by a campaign infusion of more than $420,000 from an unlikely source: a local cellphone provider whose mission, it says, is communicating conservative Christian values.All 11 candidates backed by the company, Patriot Mobile, won their races across four school districts, including the one in Grapevine, Texas, a conservative town where the company is based and where highly rated schools are the main draw for families. In August, the board approved new policies limiting support for transgender students, clamping down on books deemed inappropriate and putting in place new rules that made it possible to be elected to the school board even without a majority of votes.The entry of a Texas cellphone company into the national tug of war over schools is part of a far more sweeping battle over the future of Texas being waged in the suburbs north of Dallas and Fort Worth.The company’s efforts have been seen as a model by Republican candidates and conservative activists, who have sought to harness parental anger over public schools as a means of holding onto suburban areas, a fight that could determine the future of the country’s largest red state.“If we lose Tarrant County, we lose Texas,” Jenny Story, Patriot Mobile’s chief operating officer, said. “If we lose Texas, we lose the country.”Glen Whitley, the top executive in Tarrant County, Texas, recognizes the rising political clout of Patriot Mobile in his part of the state. Emil Lippe for The New York TimesGlen Whitley, the top executive in Tarrant County, said the company has become an important player in politics in this part of the state. “They’ve been successful in taking over the school board in Grapevine-Colleyville, in Keller and Southlake,” Mr. Whitley, a Republican, said. He said the company appeared to be setting its sights next on city council races next year.“They’re coming after Fort Worth,” Mr. Whitley said.Patriot Mobile representatives are a frequent presence on the conservative political circuit across the country, taking praise from Steve Bannon at the Conservative Political Action Conference, buying tables at nonprofit fund-raisers and meeting with candidates from inside and outside of Texas.Modeled after a progressive, California-based cellphone provider founded in the 1980s, the company unabashedly embraces its partisan agenda, donating money to anti-abortion and other conservative causes. Lately, it has begun spending money on behalf of Republican political candidates.Peter Barnes, who helped start Credo Mobile, the California cellphone company that funded progressive causes, said he long expected that other firms would follow a similar path.“The business model is pretty simple and we expected that something similar would emerge on the right,” he said of the plan for channeling profits into politics. “But it didn’t — until now.”In North Texas, Patriot Mobile’s political spending has supported digital advertising, door hangers and campaign mailers as well as get-out-the-vote efforts on behalf of its chosen candidates.Patriot Mobile openly embraces its partisan agenda, donating money to anti-abortion and other conservative causes. Emil Lippe for The New York TimesIts political activism has already changed things on the ground in Grapevine, where the nine-year-old company is based. The new policies on books and transgender issues passed 4-to-3, with the two Patriot Mobile-backed candidates making the difference.More on U.S. Schools and EducationDrop-Off Outfits: As children return to the classroom, parents with a passion for style are looking for ways to feel some sense of chic along the way to school.Turning to the Sun: Public schools are increasingly using savings from solar energy to upgrade facilities, help their communities and give teachers raises — often with no cost to taxpayers.High School Football: Supply chain problems have slowed helmet manufacturing, leaving coaches around the country scrambling to find protective gear for their teams.Teacher Shortage: While the pandemic has created an urgent search for teachers in some areas, not every district is suffering from shortages. Here are the factors in play.An array of high school students in this increasingly diverse area responded with a walkout from class, led by transgender and nonbinary students. Parents opposed to the changes have begun meeting to figure out their own response.In Grapevine’s harvest-and-wine-themed downtown, where upscale coffee shops and restaurants can be found near displays of “Ultra MAGA” sweatshirts, Patriot Mobile is headquartered in a cluster of offices unmarked from the outside.The company’s logo adorns a conference room where Senator Ted Cruz’s father, Rafael, leads a packed Bible study every Tuesday. Along one cubicle hangs a Texas flag with silhouettes of assault rifles and the words “Come and Take It,” in a nod to a well-known slogan from the Texas revolution.“We just said, ‘Look, we’re going to put God first,’” said Glenn Story, the founder and chief executive, sitting in his office on a recent afternoon, a guitar signed by Donald Trump Jr. hanging on the wall. “Which is why I haven’t erased that from the board,” he said, pointing to a list of core values written on a whiteboard, beginning with “Missionaries vs. Mercenaries.”Under Glenn Story, the chief executive, Patriot Mobile has become a growing influence in communicating conservative Christian values in Texas. Emil Lippe for The New York Times“Our mission is to support our God-given Constitutional rights,” said Ms. Story, the chief operating officer and Mr. Story’s wife.“And to honor God, always,” said Leigh Wambsganss, a vice president at the company who also heads the political action committee, Patriot Mobile Action, founded by the company’s executives.Corporations donate regularly to state and local political campaigns, but a regional company, founded with a partisan mission and willing to spend money in backyard races, is unusual. School boards across the country are increasingly becoming political battlegrounds, attracting larger sums of money and national groups into what had once been largely invisible local contests.Patriot Mobile’s political activities are focused on suburban Tarrant County, north of Fort Worth, in large part because the county has been trending blue, narrowly carried by President Biden in 2020 and by the former Democratic congressman and current candidate for governor, Beto O’Rourke, during his 2018 Senate run.Long a bastion of well-regarded schools, conservative churches and largely well-off, white neighborhoods, the area nurtured strong Tea Party groups during the Obama administration and, more recently, those that supported a Republican primary challenger to the right of Gov. Greg Abbott. It has a reputation, among some in the party, as a hotbed for hard-right politics.Downtown Grapevine, Texas, is where Patriot Mobile has its headquarters. Emil Lippe for The New York TimesThe new policies voted on in the Grapevine-Colleyville Independent School District have divided parents and raised concern among some teachers, some of whom said they feared becoming targets of the new school board.One of the new board members suggested as much during a Republican forum over the summer, saying the board had a “list” of teachers who she believed were activists promoting progressive ideas about race and equity.“They are just poison and they are taking our schools down,” the board member, Tammy Nakamura, said.Some teachers have begun removing books from their classrooms rather than abide by new rules that require titles to be posted online so that they can be publicly reviewed. The district canceled its annual Scholastic book fair after previous concerns about books that were “mis-merchandised” and were not age-appropriate, a district spokeswoman said.“You now have the school board approving library books, and I feel that is completely micromanaging the administration,” said Jorge Rodríguez, a school board member who voted against the new policies, adding that more than a quarter of the district’s 14,000 students were economically disadvantaged. “We’re here to educate kids and this is not helping.”The top spokesman for the district resigned a few months after being hired, citing the “divisive” atmosphere. The district’s superintendent said recently that he planned to retire at the end of the school year.A neighborhood in Grapevine. New policies in the school district there have divided parents. Emil Lippe for The New York Times“I’ve always been a staunch conservative,” said Christy Horne, a parent whose two children go to elementary school in the district. But the attacks on teachers were too much for her, Ms. Horne said. “It got personal.”But for Mario Cordova, another parent in the district, the new school board leadership has rightly given more control over curriculum and reading material to parents, many of whom were dismayed by what they saw their children learning in remote schooling during the pandemic.“Parents across the district voted for a change on the board last May and are happy to see them follow through,” Mr. Cordova wrote in an email. Opponents of the changes are “crying wolf,” he added. “This crowd has convinced themselves they cannot teach children without incessant conversations about sex and gender.”For many parents and teachers, an early sign that their schools had become a political battleground came last year with complaints over the first Black high school principal at Colleyville Heritage High School.Some parents contended that the principal, Dr. James Whitfield, had been promoting “critical race theory” and were rankled by an email he sent, days after the death of George Floyd, expressing solidarity with Black Lives Matter protesters and a desire to create greater equity.“He’s going to start a diversity advisory committee? At our school? He’s going to say that Black Lives Matter?” said Dr. Whitfield, describing the reaction he encountered. The fight made national headlines and the district eventually reached a settlement with Dr. Whitfield that included his departure as principal.The district superintendent has said the decision was not about race.The fight over comments that Dr. James Whitfield made supporting Black Lives Matter protesters when he was principal of Colleyville Heritage High School made national headlines. Emil Lippe for The New York TimesA few months after Dr. Whitfield’s departure, opponents of a diversity plan in neighboring Southlake won control of the local school board, with help from a political action committee, Southlake Families. One of the founders was Ms. Wambsganss, a parent in Southlake schools and a former television news anchor. Another was Tim O’Hare, who is the Republican nominee in November’s election to lead Tarrant County.Parents both in Southlake and in Grapevine-Colleyville have been offended by the sexual content, including explicit descriptions of sexual activity, in some books offered to students, as well as certain discussions of gender and race, said Ms. Wambsganss, now at Patriot Mobile.“Parents do not believe that gender issues should be discussed in K through 12,” she said. “Especially Christian parents do not want multiple genders discussed with their children by someone who is not their parents.”She added: “I always say, it’s not about homosexuality. It’s not about heterosexuality. Stop sexualizing kids in either of those arenas.”The victories by Patriot Mobile-backed candidates surprised some parents who did not agree with the new direction in the district.On a recent morning, a dozen of those parents and community members gathered at the local botanical garden. For many, it was the first time they had met after finding one another through one of the many proliferating Facebook pages dedicated to the school district conflicts.“I ask myself every day, what did I bring my children into,” said Katherine Parks, who moved to the area from France.Marceline, a student at Grapevine High School, helped organize a walkout.Emil Lippe for The New York Times“We were Swift Boated by these people,” said Tom Hart, a Republican former city councilman in Colleyville, referring to the political attacks that helped sink John Kerry’s presidential campaign in 2004. “We cannot combat $400,000 in funding from the outside.”As parents met to strategize, some students at Grapevine High School, where the Gay-Straight Alliance club was shuttered for lack of a faculty sponsor, have already begun to find ways to protest. A student started a book club for reading banned books. A group of friends organized a walkout.“We can find solidarity, and we can find safety in each other,” said Marceline, who asked that only their first name be used out of concern for possible reprisals. “Because we cannot trust the adults.”About 100 students joined in the walkout. No similar protest has taken place at nearby Colleyville Heritage High School, and for many students, the beginning of the school year has proceeded, more or less, as it always has.In Grapevine, books and the discussion of gender and race continue to be hotly debated topics.Emil Lippe for The New York Times More

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      Ex-US army medic allegedly lured migrants on to flights to Martha’s Vineyard

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      Ex-US army medic allegedly lured migrants on to flights to Martha’s VineyardPerla Huerta was reportedly sent to Texas from Florida to fill planes chartered by DeSantis, offering gift cards to asylum seekers A former US army combat medic and counterintelligence agent allegedly solicited asylum seekers to join flights out of Texas to Martha’s Vineyard that Florida’s Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, chartered.Perla Huerta was sent to Texas from Tampa to fill the planes at the center of the trips, which many have argued could amount to illegal human trafficking, a person briefed on an investigation into the case told the New York Times.In September, dozens of asylum seekers were transported to Martha’s Vineyard, an affluent community in Massachusetts, and were promised cash assistance, help with housing and other resources if they traveled to the state. DeSantis claimed responsibility for the flights, portraying it as a protest against the Joe Biden White House’s immigration policy.The flights – one of which made a stop in Florida – departed from San Antonio and therefore have drawn scrutiny from the sheriff’s office there.Huerta was discharged from the US army in August after serving the military branch for two decades. A migrant told CNN that a woman named “Perla” offered him clothes, food, and money in exchange to help find other migrants, mostly from Venezuela, to board the flights to Massachusetts. She gave him $10 McDonald’s gift cards to be handed out to the asylum seekers who agreed to join the flights.Florida officials confirmed a payment to the airline charter company, Vertol Systems, for $615,000 on 8 September. The money comes from a state budget signed earlier this year giving DeSantis $12m for a program to deport migrants.Vertol Systems offers aviation maintenance and training services and performs work for the US government. The company has networked with Florida’s Republican power brokers over the years.The charter has contributed money to some of DeSantis’s top allies, including the Congress member Matt Gaetz and Florida’s public safety director in charge of immigration policy, Larry Keefe, according to NBC News.Attorneys representing the asylum seekers have filed a federal class-action lawsuit against DeSantis and others, contending that the plaintiffs were misled into thinking they would receive benefits upon arrival to Martha’s Vineyard.However, those benefits are only available for refugees, a specific status that the asylum seekers do not currently fall under.Some legal experts have deemed DeSantis’s acts as human trafficking or smuggling. The group Lawyers for Civil Rights labeled the move as an “appalling” political stunt.In the San Antonio area, the Bexar county sheriff, Javier Salazar, launched an investigation examining the flights that took off from there.Upon the asylum seekers’ arrival, aid group workers quickly gathered food as well as supplies and set up shelter. Island residents set up a church to house the migrants and provided translation services.The asylum seekers were also receiving clothing from community thrift shops, and people were increasingly calling to volunteer to help them and donate to them.Many of the asylum seekers ended up at a military base in Cape Cod with little knowledge of what would happen next.The flights are an escalation of Republican officials sending hundreds of asylum seekers to predominantly Democratic areas. The Texas governor, Greg Abbott, has sent more than 100 migrants from Colombia, Cuba, Guyana, Nicaragua, Panama and Venezuela by bus from Texas to the Washington DC home of Vice-President Kamala Harris.Abbot has also sent buses to New York City.TopicsUS immigrationUS politicsFloridaUS militaryTexasRon DeSantisMassachusettsnewsReuse this content More

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      Former warden and brother accused of killing migrants near US-Mexico border

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      Former warden and brother accused of killing migrants near US-Mexico borderMichael Sheppard has since been fired from his job at Texas jail and faces, along with his brother, a charge of manslaughter After stopping for water near the US-Mexico border, one migrant was shot dead and another was wounded when they were fired on by the warden of an allegedly abusive Texas jail and his brother last week.Michael Sheppard – the warden of West Texas Detention Facility, a privately-owned jail which once housed migrants detained by the federal government – and Mark Sheppard each face a charge of manslaughter after the 27 September shooting in rural Hudspeth county, roughy 90 miles (145km) from El Paso.Prosecutors charged the Sheppard brothers, both 60, two days after the shooting. Michael Sheppard has since been fired from his job.According to Texas’s public safety department, the victims in the case were among several migrants standing alongside a road drinking water from a reservoir when the Sheppards drove up in a truck. The migrants hid when the pickup first passed, but then the driver backed the truck up, got out, leaned over the hood and fired two gunshots at the group.One of the group’s members, a man, was struck in the head and killed. Another – a woman – was struck in the stomach and injured before eventually being brought to the hospital, officials said. Neither of the victims’ names was immediately released to the public.Investigators wrote in court records that witnesses reported hearing one of the men in the pickup hurl derogatory words at them and make the engine roar, the Associated Press reported.Using a description of the pickup as well as surveillance cameras, authorities later found the truck and the Sheppard brothers.The Sheppards – before they were arrested – claimed to investigators they were hunting at the time of the shooting.A spokesperson for the West Texas Detention Facility’s proprietor, Louisiana-based LaSalle Corrections, later told media outlets that the company had dismissed Michael Sheppard “due to an off-duty incident unrelated to his employment”. The spokesperson wouldn’t elaborate, citing an “ongoing criminal investigation”.The University of Texas and Texas A&M immigration law clinics and the immigration advocacy group Raices wrote a 2018 report that detailed multiple allegations of abuse – physical and verbal – against African migrants held at the West Texas Detention Facility.The report alleges that the warden “was involved in three of the detainees’ reports of verbal threats [and] in incidents of physical assault”.Authorities had trouble following up on the report’s allegations because many of those interviewed were soon deported, co-author Fatma Marouf told the Associated Press.Though the report stops short of naming that official, Democratic congressmember Lloyd Doggett of Texas over the weekend confirmed that Michael Sheppard was the warden to which the 2018 report referred.Doggett on Saturday joined other Texas Democrats in Congress in calling for a federal investigation in the shooting with which the Sheppard brothers have been charged.“The dehumanizing, the demeaning of people who seek refuge in this country, many of whom are people of color, is what contributed to the violence we see here,” Doggett said.Overall, in August, US authorities said they stopped migrants 203,598 times, an increase of 1.8% from 199,976 times in July but a decrease of 4.7% from the same month in 2021.
      The Associated Press contributed reporting
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      Abbott and O’Rourke clash on abortion and immigration in Texas debate

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      Abbott and O’Rourke clash on abortion and immigration in Texas debateDemocratic challenger aiming to wrest governorship away from rightwing Abbott in November election Immigration, abortion and border security all came up in Friday’s contentious, rapid-paced gubernatorial debate in Texas, where Beto O’Rourke is trying to help the Democrats wrest back the far-right leaning state from Greg Abbott and the Republicans.Uvalde families stand with Beto O’Rourke amid Republican silence on gun reformRead moreTopicsTexasUS politicsBeto O’RourkeGreg AbbottReuse this content More