KC Counts talked with Bob Moore, president and CEO of El Paso Matters, about the stunning Democratic wins in the Lone Star State and local El Paso races. Here's a transcript of their conversation, which took place before the races were called for Talarico and Hinojosa.
KC Counts:
Bob, why don't you just begin with kind of a characterization of how you see things unfolding tonight in El Paso and across the state of Texas?
Bob Moore:
Historic is the word I keep using over and over again. To put it in some context, Republicans have not lost a statewide race in Texas since 1994. So there's a huge chunk of the Texas population that's never seen a Democrat win a statewide race. And tonight, not only is James Talarico going to win, which is not a big surprise. But right now, Gina Hinojosa has a substantial lead over Governor Greg Abbott and then all of the other major Republican constitutional officers, the lieutenant governor, attorney general, On down the line, even a lot of the court races, the Democrats are winning by substantial margins at this point. It's looking like the Texas House of Representatives may flip to Democratic control, which, I mean, nobody had foreseen that going into tonight. So just a stunning thing to watch. And El Paso is part of it. The Democrats are doing extraordinarily well in El Paso, which is historically a Democratic county, but statewide Democratic candidates are running up margins in El Paso County that they've never run up in midterm elections before. Just really historic is the only way to put it.
KC Counts:
Well, let's get back to the governor's race, Gina Hinojosa and Greg Abbott. I think people, you know, like that was the thing you thought may be more surprising, right, than James Talarico and Ken Paxton. How can you characterize what is pushing Gina Hinojosa potentially over that finish line tonight?
Bob Moore:
A lot of different contributing factors. Obviously, The unpopularity of Donald Trump is drowning Republicans across the country tonight. But I think in Texas, probably the most important development has been the Hispanic vote. Famously, just two years ago, Donald Trump won 14 of the 20 counties along the I'm sorry, 16 of the 20 counties along the U.S. Mexico border. largely by building up support among Hispanics. That all has reversed and then some tonight. Both Gina Hinojosa and James Talarico are winning by massive margins. Just to use El Paso, for example, so Kamala Harris won El Paso by 15 points just two years ago, which was a small margin for Democrats, but 15 is still a healthy margin. Talarico carried early voting in El Paso by 51 points. and Jamie Hinojosa by 46 points. And this is happening up and down the border. It's happening in the big cities where Hispanic voters are concentrated. So I think one of the big stories out of this election, not just in Texas, but nationally, is the rising importance of Hispanic voters. They are now the true swing vote across the country. And because they've proven that they will move back and forth if one party or the other is not making them happy. So Democrats and Republicans are going to have to compete for that very important block of voters going forward.
KC Counts:
Can we talk about some more local races in El Paso, say some of those top tier local races that you're watching tonight?
Bob Moore:
So all of the partisan races for the county and for judgeships and everything saw the same thing play out that we're seeing in the statewide thing. So Democratic candidates winning 70% plus of the votes. So Ricardo Samaniego, the incumbent county judge, easily reelected tonight. That's probably one of the most high profile races. Congresswoman Veronica Escobar overwhelmingly reelected again more than 70% of the vote after being held below 60% two years ago for the first time since she got elected. So the most interesting races are probably the City Council races because those are nonpartisan races and you have 4 incumbents on on the ballot. One of them, Ivan Nino, looks like he's going to win, but the other three look like they're going to be forced into a runoff. So that's Alejandra Chavez, Art Fierro, and Chris Canales. So El Paso is not done voting yet. We have to go back one more time on December 14th to settle these last three city council races.
KC Counts:
All right. Can we talk a little bit about District 16 and District 23, what's shaping up there? Probably a strong night for Veronica Escobar.
Bob Moore:
Yeah, so Congresswoman Escobar is winning with more than 70% of the vote, which is, if that continues, will be the highest margin she's ever won by since being elected in 2018. Stout, who's running in District 23, which stretches from here to San Antonio, is in the lead right now. It's a very complex district. She won overwhelmingly in El Paso County, which is a change from just two years ago when the Republican candidate that year actually carried that part of El Paso County by a very narrow margin, Tony Gonzalez. He resigned amid a sex scandal right in the middle of the primary. And so the Republicans nominated a YouTube star named Brandon Herrera, who has a record of saying inflammatory things. District 23 was one of those districts that Republicans redistricted to make even more Hispanic and more Republican because they thought they had the Hispanics locked up. They very well may lose that seat, as well as a number of the others that they redistricted, counting on their newfound success among Hispanic voters to continue. And it's great reminder not to take your coalition for granted. The Republicans are getting a rude awakening in Texas tonight and across the country on that.
KC Counts:
Bob, thank you so much for sharing that insight with us. We appreciate hearing from you. Please feel free to check back in if there are any big surprises.
Bob Moore:
Yeah, everything's a surprise tonight, which is, I guess, good for democracy.
KC Counts:
How about that? Well, how was the pizza?
Bob Moore:
The pizza was good. And we had a few college students sitting in to watch an election night. So that was fun, too. So we're doing hard work, but having fun at the same time.
KC Counts:
That's what it's all about. All right, Bob, thank you so much.
Bob Moore:
Yeah. Take care and good luck with your coverage tonight.
For more El Paso and Texas results, you can follow El Paso Matters' coverage right here.
