(The Center Square) – The majority of Hispanic Texans polled want illegal border crossers deported. More also left the Democratic Party this election, according to newly released data from a University of Texas-Austin Texas Politics Project (TPP) poll.
There was “a clear swing toward Donald Trump among Latino voters,” executive director of TPP, Jim Henson, said in a statement. Pointing to exit poll data published by the Washington Post, he explained, “all caveats notwithstanding, Trump won 55% of the Latino vote in Texas, while Ted Cruz ran slightly behind Trump with a still impressive 50%.”
Trump’s success with Hispanic voters “showed a weakening of their attachment to the Democratic Party, as well as attitudes toward the key issues in the election (the economy and immigration) and their attitudes toward Trump and Biden,” Henson said.
According to the data, Trump received 55% of the Hispanic vote in Texas compared to Vice President Kamala Harris’ 45%. He also won 65% of the Hispanic male vote.
The primary issue among Texas voters was immigration, 91%, and the economy, 87%, according to the data; 76% said the national economy is “not so good/poor.”
A greater majority of Texas voters, 92%, said illegal border crossers should be deported to the countries they came from.
According to TPP data, the majority polled, 51%, said they trusted Trump to do a better job on the economy, compared to 40% who said Harris.
The same percentage of Hispanic voters as white voters held the same views on immigration leading up to the election in a TPP October poll: 49% each said the U.S. allows too many people to legally immigrate to the U.S.; 43% each agreed that illegal border crossers “currently living in the United States should be deported immediately.”
Among Republican registered voters polled, 50% said Texas was spending too little on border security, compared to 44% of Democrats who said it was spending too much, according to a TPP June 2024 poll.
“One effect of Donald Trump’s election already evident is signaling from both Governor [Greg] Abbott and Lt. Governor [Dan] Patrick that the unprecedented, steep increases in spending on border security under the umbrella of Operation Lone Star can be ratcheted down,” Henson said. “Along with Trump’s election, this will provide cover for legislators to decrease spending from the roughly $6.5 billion the Legislative Budget Board reported as the total line item for border security in the budget for the current biennium.”
The Texas legislature has allocated more than $11.6 billion to border security efforts over a four-year period, the most in state history, and more than multiple state fiscal year budgets, The Center Square reported.
State Rep. Greg Bonnen, R-Friendswood, who chairs the House Appropriations Committee, said earlier this year that the amount that Texas taxpayers have funded for OLS is greater than federal taxpayer money allocated for Texas border security operations under the Trump administration. “When you look at the appropriations for border security under the four years of the Trump administration in Texas, that was $1.6 billion. For the four years of the Biden presidency, Texas is appropriating $11.6 billion to do the same thing,” he said.
Cruz won 50% of the Texas Hispanic vote and 62% of the Hispanic male vote, according to Washington Post exit data. The top issues for voters choosing Cruz were immigration, 89%, and the economy, 82%. The majority who voted for Cruz, 86%, said illegal border crossers should be immediately deported to the countries they came from.
Trump and Cruz also made history in November when they won in Texas border counties, the majority of which flipped red for the first time in state history, The Center Square reported. The overwhelming majority of residents and registered voters in south Texas are Hispanic.
