Poll: Hispanic voters in Texas focus on costs — and want pols to hear them

Eight in 10 Hispanic voters in Texas say politicians take them for granted —and four in 10 are more likely to support candidates who communicate with them in Spanish — according to a new survey shared exclusively with Axios.

• Inflation and cost of living was the top concern this election year for Texas Hispanics, the survey for TelevisaUnivision by The Harris Poll found.

Why it matters: Texas' primaries this week put the Lone Star State in the spotlight. But what's true in Texas may well extend to other states with large Hispanic populations — and have implications for the November midterms.

• The poll was conducted earlier this week, as a surge in Latino voters in Texas' Democratic primary helped propel state Rep. James Talarico to the party's nomination for the U.S. Senate seat now held by Republican John Cornyn.
• Talarico has emphasized working-class concerns in his campaign — and has reached out to Hispanics with Spanish-language ads while doing some interviews in Spanish.

What they're saying: "If you think you're reaching Hispanics with the message you have on English-language TV for the broad-based audience, you're missing the point," said Daniel Alegre, CEO of TelevisaUnivision.

• "Spanish-dominant or dual-language Hispanics, they will determine where the vote is going to go."
• But Hispanic voters are "no longer the Democratic vote that everyone expected" Alegre said. "They're an issues vote, and they feel they're not being listened to."

Zoom in: Republicans have been making gains among Latino voters in recent elections, though Hispanics' turnout Tuesday in Texas was widely seen as an indication that economic concerns have given Democrats a shot at recapturing support in November's elections.

• "The cost-of-living issue is a national issue, not just a Texas issue, and it impacts Hispanics disproportionately," Alegre said.

Three quarters of respondents said inflation and the cost of living was the most important issue this year.

• Other key issues seen as "very important" in the survey were health care access and costs (69%), jobs and wages (67%), housing affordability (65%), immigration enforcement tactics (54%) and immigration and border security at the Texas-Mexico border (50%).

Methodology: This online survey of 526 registered Hispanic voters in Texas was conducted March 2-4, 2026, online by The Harris Poll on behalf of TelevisaUnivision. The survey was offered in both English and Spanish.

• Breakdown of respondents by political affiliation is 29% Republican, 32% Democrat and 39% as independent. Respondents for this survey were selected from those who agreed to participate in the organization's surveys. The sampling precision of Harris online polls is measured by using a Bayesian credible interval.
• For this study, the overall sample data is accurate to within ± 6.2 percentage points using a 95% confidence level. This credible interval will be wider among subsets of the surveyed population of interest.
• Data are weighted where necessary by age by gender, education, household income, language, and political party affiliation to bring them in line with their actual proportions in the population.