WASHINGTON
Democrats are pressing for immigration reform following their midterm election victories in Texas, even as exit polling showed economic concerns ranked higher for both Democratic and Hispanic voters.
The party flipped Republican-held congressional districts and won major upsets in statewide races. Winners are framing results as a mandate to challenge President Donald Trump's immigration enforcement policies and signaling to prospective 2028 Democratic presidential candidates that immigration reform must be central to their platform.
Rep.-elect Bobby Pulido, a Democrat from South Texas, made the demand explicit at a Capitol Hill news conference last Wednesday. "Whoever wants to get our support in '28 has to prioritize immigration reform, period," Pulido said.
Pulido defeated Republican Rep. Monica De La Cruz, who had won her seat by 14.2 points in 2024. During his campaign, Pulido focused on affordability and connected Trump's worksite immigration raids to labor shortages, arguing the crackdowns harmed the economy.
Rep. Henry Cuellar, a Texas Democrat whose district includes Laredo, said voters who split their tickets—supporting Trump for president but Democrats down-ballot—were motivated by both economic pressure and the immigration crackdowns. Trump "made a promise that he was going to bring prices down on day one. That didn't happen," Cuellar told reporters. He added that Trump "said he was going to focus on criminals. He didn't stop there. He started going after construction workers."
Yet polling reveals the gap between Democratic strategy and voter sentiment. Fox News Digital found that 27 percent of Republican voters ranked immigration as their top issue, while only three percent of Democrats did. Pre-election Fox News Voter Poll data showed the economy was the most important issue for 45 percent of Hispanic voters surveyed, with the state of democracy at 26 percent and immigration at 15 percent.
An estimated 14.5 million Latinos cast ballots in the 2026 midterms, according to UnidosUS. The organization's Texas state director, Eric Holguín, said Democratic support among Latino voters reached levels comparable to 2008, when Barack Obama won the presidency. "Cost of living was the number one issue that we saw with Latino voters in Texas and across the country," Holguín said.
