A six-figure get-out-the-vote operation is landing in Texas' Rio Grande Valley this month, as two national Latino advocacy groups seek to boost turnout in a region that has shifted toward Republicans. The Voto Latino Foundation and the Hispanic Federation are rolling out town halls, a televised event with Telemundo, and an end-of-month rally aimed at a region Voto Latino Foundation president and co-founder María Teresa Kumar describes as “the epicenter of the Latino vote for the rest of the country.”
The push comes just as Texas' registration deadline for the November 3 midterms closed this past Monday, according to the Texas Secretary of State, with in-person early voting set to run October 19 through October 30. As reported by NBC News, the two groups estimate that nearly 316,000 eligible Latinos in Texas did not vote in the 2024 election, a gap they're now trying to close through direct outreach, voter registration checks, and early-voting encouragement. Voto Latino Foundation president and co-founder María Teresa Kumar said early voting “inoculates you,” makes it harder to claim anyone cheated, and gives people courage to vote after seeing their neighbors do so.
A Region That Flipped Red
The Rio Grande Valley's political reversal has been stark. Trump carried Starr County with 57.7% of the vote in November 2024, according to KSAT, marking the first time a Republican presidential candidate had won the county since 1892. NBC News reports that Latino voters across the broader Rio Grande Valley backed Trump by a majority that year, even as polls and interviews cited in the same report point to frustration over the cost of living and immigration enforcement operations as driving factors behind voter anger.
The four counties that make up the Rio Grande Valley — Cameron, Hidalgo, Starr, and Willacy — have a combined population that is roughly 92% Latino, per Reporting Texas. That demographic weight is part of why Kumar called the region, in comments to NBC News, “the epicenter of the Latino vote for the rest of the country,” adding that a major shift of the area's Latino vote toward Democrats would both reveal the current state of the Latino vote and shape expectations heading into 2028. Republican gains in the region haven't stopped at the presidential level, either — the Advance News Journal notes that Republican Adam Hinojosa won Texas Senate District 27 in 2024, while Republicans also captured the chief justice seat on the 13th Court of Appeals covering 20 South Texas counties.
Signs of Renewed Engagement
There are indications the ground may be shifting again. Democratic primary turnout across the four Rio Grande Valley counties more than doubled in the March 2026 primary compared to March 2024, according to The Texas Tribune — a trend Hoodline previously reported breaking 2-to-1 for Democrats in statewide polling. Nearly 500,000 Texas Latinos have also turned 18 in the past two years and become newly eligible to vote, NBC News reports, adding a fresh bloc of voters to a region both parties are courting aggressively.
Nationally, the pool of eligible Latino voters has swelled too, reaching an estimated 36.2 million in 2024, up from 32.3 million in 2020. A recent NBC News/Telemundo survey of 800 registered Latino voters nationally found 69% disapproval of Trump among respondents, and 54% said they intended their midterm votes to signal opposition to the president, according to the same NBC News report. Still, no Democratic candidate has won statewide office in Texas since 1994, per reporting from Reporting Texas, a streak the Rio Grande Valley push hopes to help end.
Town Halls and a Registration Scramble
Voto Latino Foundation and the Hispanic Federation will host the “Juntos en el 956” community town hall in Edinburg this Saturday, offering residents help making a plan to vote and answering questions, moderated by Claudia Lopez. The groups are also planning a televised town hall with Telemundo and a voter-turnout rally later this month, according to NBC News. Hispanic Federation president and CEO Frankie Miranda told the outlet that educating Latinos about their voting rights and listening to their concerns is central to improving turnout, adding that the organizations expect Latino participation to track directly with their efforts on election day.
Both groups are urging voters to cast ballots early and to double-check that nothing has happened to their registrations — advice that carries real weight given the state's administrative hurdles. More than a million registered Texas voters are on the state's suspense list, though they remain eligible to cast a ballot, according to the Texas Tribune. Texas also remains among a minority of states without full online voter registration, and a 2023 ruling by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the state's wet-ink signature requirement, meaning forms submitted electronically or by fax must still be followed by a physical copy with an original signature, per Democracy Docket. Miranda also said the Hispanic Federation has fielded reports of attempts in many places to push people off voter rolls and question voter data.
NBC News recounts voters waiting outside a McAllen polling place on Election Day in 2024, a scene that captured both the turnout enthusiasm and the long lines that have become familiar in the Valley. With Texas midterm turnout historically lagging presidential years — 41.8% in 2022 compared with 56.6% in 2024, according to Ballotpedia — the coming weeks of early voting may determine whether the Rio Grande Valley's rightward lurch holds or reverses course.
