Scott Brocato:
Bob, let's start with your Election 2026 Voter Guide.
Bob Moore:
Yeah, so as people might have heard, there's an election coming up. Election day is November 3rd. Lots of very interesting races all across the country and including in our region. And so our voters guide is sort of like the most anticipated event of the year for a lot of our readers because it gets them a lot of information. So we're starting to roll it out now because early voting starts on October 19th, so a little less than two weeks away. Early voting in Texas continues through October 30th and then November 3rd is Election Day.
Obviously in Texas, a lot of folks are focusing on the Senate race and the governor's race, which are unusually competitive for Democrats in Texas. But we also have local races that are really important, including four City Council races. So half the City Council is up for election. This time we have a race for county judge, which is the top elected official for El Paso County.
A couple of judicial races, some legislative races, so lots for people to know about and our guide will let them know where candidates stand on significant issues, provide information on important dates to keep in mind and then also give some really helpful information on the voting process itself and how to make sure that things go smoothly--what kinds of ID you need in Texas and things like that. So it's a real helpful tool for voters and we've got it up and running and invite people to take a look at that as they start preparing for how they want to cast their ballots.
Scott Brocato:
In the meantime, the next story is a poll suggesting El Paso Republicans are shedding their 2024 gains.
Bob Moore:
Yeah, so one of the big stories out of the '24 election was significant inroads that Republicans had made with Hispanic voters, and it led to talk about possible political realignment that could strengthen the Republican Party for years to come. And Texas was sort of at the heart of that, particularly in the Rio Grande Valley in South Texas, but we also saw a shift in El Paso. So even though Republicans didn't win El Paso like they did a lot of the South Texas counties, they did make a lot of inroads here.
And so historically and in statewide races, you'd see Democratic candidates winning by 25 to 30 points. But in 2024, President Trump only lost El Paso by 15 points, so about half the margins he'd been losing by before. The Republican appointed district attorney Bill Hicks also finished within 15 points of his Democratic challenger. So it was looking like Republicans were making some real inroads in El Paso.
But a poll that was released earlier this month by the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas really had some interesting findings, I thought. First of all, the poll really was meant to focus on how voters are viewing ICE activity in the border region. But a larger part of that is like, what is that doing to President Trump's popularity, and what's it doing in those two big races in Texas that I mentioned earlier, the Senate and governor's race? And when we look at the Senate and governor race in El Paso, that is really pointing to an outcome this year that could look very much like things used to look like in El Paso, where Democrats are again winning by 25 or more points. That would obviously be a real big disappointment for Republicans.
It's also playing out in the Rio Grande Valley. So the poll showed that Republican incumbent Greg Abbott for governor is trailing in both El Paso and the four main Rio Grande Valley candidates to Gina Hinojosa, the Democratic nominee; and Ken Paxton, the Republican nominee for Senate, is trailing the Democrat James Talarico. And so these poll findings are actually very much in line with what a lot of national polling is showing with Hispanics sort of falling out of love with Trump, creating some real problems for Republican candidates across the board.
Anytime you talk about polls, you have to acknowledge that polls aren't predictions of election outcomes. They're subject to sampling error. And, you know, this poll in itself was kind of finished in early September, so a couple months before people really are going to vote and certainly even before a lot of people are engaged. And so you have campaigns so that people's minds can get changed. And just because somebody was planning to vote one way at the beginning of September doesn't mean they're going to do that on November 3rd. So a lot can still happen, and there's a lot of money being spent by both parties to try to sway people's views and to make sure that the candidates favored by the two-party establishments have a chance to win in Texas.
Scott Brocato:
And finally, the El Paso Independent School District is among four Texas school districts selected for a state spending review.
Bob Moore:
Yeah, this is a follow-up on some earlier issues that began to surface in Texas where Governor Abbott, who we were just speaking of, was basically saying he wants to make sure that local school districts are spending at least 70% of their money in the classroom. And he didn't particularly define that. But the Texas Comptroller, Don Huffines, who's also on the ballot in this election, announced this week that he had picked four school districts, the two biggest ones are El Paso and Austin ISD, to examine whether they're spending money properly. He didn't say why those districts in particular were picked. Three of the four, including El Paso, have had very serious financial problems in recent years.
El Paso ISD leadership basically says they welcome the review, that they knew they were a little too top-heavy in administration, and when they were going through their financial exigency this summer, they deeply reduced the number of central office administrators and cleaned up some past bad practices. So we'll see. We're supposed to have this information by December 31st and then the legislature might address the issue next year.
Scott Brocato:
All right, and where can folks read about those stories and more?
Bob Moore:
Stay up to date on the most important issues in our region at elpasomatters.org.