Bad Hombres

My report from South Texas

I have a story up today at The Free Press about a South Texas, working-class, nearly 100% Latino border county that just voted for a Republican for president for the first time in 130 years. It’s a story about the decades-long great political realignment that culminated in last week’s decisive victory for Donald Trump.

The Free Press is behind a paywall, and I obviously can’t just cut and paste a paywalled article from the place that paid me to write it. I get that that’s a bit aggravating, but I wanted to give a heads-up to those Social Studies readers who also subscribe The Free Press, since I know there are at least a few of you.

Apologies to the rest. For now, here are a few photographs I took while I was in Texas. Later this week, I’ll write up some thoughts on the triumph of MAGA, including some things I learned from my trip to the border. Both the election results and my conversations with Tejano voters confirmed a lot of what I’ve written about extensively here. Looks like I’ll be writing a lot more on those themes for at least another four years.

—LW

International Bridge, U.S.-Mexico border

Truck yard just north of the border

Ross Barrera, chair of the local Republican Party

Alberto Olivares, lifelong Democrat who switched to the GOP under Obama and ran for sheriff as a Republican

David Porras, who switched parties from Democrat to Republican this year