Axios House SXSW: Democrats have to work to regain Latino voters on economy, lawmaker says

AUSTIN — Democrats should not have been surprised in the 2024 election when Republicans made historic gains with Latinos, Rep. Greg Casar (D-Texas) said at an Axios Live event over the weekend at Axios House at SXSW.

Why it matters: Democrats are trying to win back Latino voters heading into this year's midterm elections.

Axios' Russell Contreras spoke with Casar and Republican Party of Texas chair Abraham George at the event, sponsored by TelevisaUnivision.

What they're saying: When Donald Trump got 49% of the Latino vote in the 2024 election, "we should have all known it was coming, because Democrats had been losing working-class voters," Casar said.

• "The Democratic Party is supposed to be the party of working people, and by losing that identity and losing that brand, we shouldn't be surprised that you start losing large numbers of Latino voters," Casar said.
• What went wrong, Casar said, was that many people in Texas questioned, "Are Democrats going to make sure that I'm not having to check my bank statement before I go to the grocery store?"

The big picture: Latinos need to know that Democrats have their economic interests at heart, Casar said. By not communicating that in 2024, "we got a real beating in November."

• The Latino voters in South Texas "were the real canary in the coal mine for the Democrats" that year, he said.

Zoom in: President Trump "just told the truth," which attracted Latino voters in the 2024 elections, George said.

• "It wasn't a politically crafted message," George said, noting that Trump talked about the border and the economy as key problems to fix.
• "He basically said the things that [a] regular American, doesn't matter Republican or Democrat, a regular person wants to hear from their leaders, and that changed everything for the Hispanic voters."

What we're watching: "But because Donald Trump has continued to increase prices and has clearly lied to Latino voters, now I think Latino voters are the ticking time bomb for the Republicans in this midterm election," Casar said.

• Latino voters are starting to swing back to the Democrats because President Trump hasn't fulfilled his promises to bring prices down, Casar added.

Content from the sponsor's remarks:

In a View From the Top conversation, TelevisaUnivision Univision Networks Group president Ignacio Meyer said politicians should tailor their messaging to win over Latino voters in this year's midterms.

• "[H]ispanic voters are largely sophisticated, or largely independent, and they want to be swayed by issues," Meyer said. "They do not want to be spoken to about partisan politics. They're largely up for grabs."

Go deeper: Watch the full conversations on YouTube.