![\"Daisy](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/9b3f4775d0ac76a4d32ece16d99762f1.jpeg\"\/)
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Daisy Alcazar says business is down at her traditional Mexican ice cream shop due to the economy and fear in the Latino community. – CNN<\/p>\n
Daisy Alcazar is a one-issue voter this midterm year: stopping Donald Trump.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think we are going to survive if we don\u2019t speak up this election,\u201d Alcazar said. \u201cWe are on fire. We are being burned down to the floor. Our businesses. Our economy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Alcazar and her husband own La Pale, a traditional Mexican ice cream and fruit bar shop. They have a storefront in Brownsville and sell through a local grocery chain. \u201cOur life savings are on the line,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Walk-in sales are down 50%. First, it was inflation\u2019s toll on working families.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe splurge money,\u201d she said. \u201cWe are a luxury item right now.\u201d<\/p>\n
Then, the fear factor. Alcazar was one of several small-business owners who told CNN many Hispanic families are afraid to go out for ice cream, or burgers or coffee \u2014 especially if the business is Latino-owned \u2014 due to fears of being detained by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are a target now,\u201d Alcazar said. \u201cAnd it doesn\u2019t matter if you are documented or undocumented, legal or illegal. \u2026 People are afraid to use public transportation because ICE enforcement is literally walking up and down the streets. We cannot normalize this.\u201d<\/p>\n
We visited Alcazar and South Texas as part of our \u201cAll Over the Map<\/a>\u201d project, an effort to track elections and major issue debates through the eyes of experiences of everyday Americans. That there is good reason to visit speaks volumes about President Donald Trump\u2019s midterm political troubles. Alcazar lives in the 34th Congressional District, which was among the big targets when, at Trump\u2019s request, Texas Republicans drew new US House maps<\/a> for the 2026 midterms.<\/p>\n The 34th is one of just 13 districts nationwide that Trump carried in 2024 at the same time voters elected a Democrat to the House. Trump won the 34th by a little more than 4 points in 2024, while Democratic Rep. Vicente Gonzalez won by less than 3 points. Had the new lines been in place then, Trump would have won by 10 points.<\/p>\n Yet what Texas Republicans thought would be a safe new GOP district \u2014 and a 2026 pickup \u2014 is a tossup. If Republicans can\u2019t win in a Texas district they drew to their advantage, it\u2019s a safe bet the Democrats will win the House and change the trajectory of the Trump presidency.<\/p>\n Four of the five Democratic-held seats targeted by Texas Republicans<\/a> are majority Latino under the new maps. But Trump\u2019s standing among Latinos has fallen dramatically<\/a> nationwide since the start of his second term, outpacing his drop in approval overall.<\/p>\n Louis Sorola knows a lot of Latinos who voted for Trump. He predicts a 2026 backlash.<\/p>\n Brownsville attorney Louis Sorola says heavy handed tactics by ICE have changed his community. – CNN<\/p>\n \u201cBecause things have changed in the last year,\u201d said Sorola, a Brownsville attorney who cast his first vote more than 40 years ago for Ronald Reagan but has mostly supported Democrats in recent elections. \u201cWe didn\u2019t have the economy in the shape that it is. We didn\u2019t have ICE acting like a Gestapo police force. We didn\u2019t have the tariffs hurting us. We didn\u2019t have a lot of things. We didn\u2019t have the Epstein files in front of us.\u201d<\/p>\n Brownsville is home to the southernmost crossing at the US-Mexico border. Illegal crossings are way down \u2014 a promise kept that could be a great political asset for the president and his party in the midterms, particularly in a region with thousands of immigration and border agents and their families. But the immigration issue is instead, at the moment anyway, a clear liability.<\/p>\n Border enforcement in Brownsville, Texas, has lead to a dramatic decrease in illegal immigration. – CNN<\/p>\n \u201cThere is a whole argument to make about border security,\u201d said Milton Reyna, a three-time Trump voter who owns a blue-collar bar in Corpus Christi. But Reyna added this: \u201cBeing Hispanic, I think that there does need to be some empathy.\u201d<\/p>\n Corpus Christi is the big change on the new map.<\/p>\n The current 34th includes parts of Hidalgo County along the border. But the 2026 map shifts Hidalgo to a neighboring district and adds a big chunk of Nueces County \u2014 the Corpus Christi area.<\/p>\n As a result, the new 34th has about 63,000 fewer voting-age Hispanic residents, and Nueces leans more Republican than Hidalgo.<\/p>\n \u201cA lot of our customers tend to be, tend to lean further right,\u201d Reyna said. \u201cSo, when Trump was elected, we got a surge.\u201d<\/p>\n Reyna plans to vote Republican in November but said he would skip the March 3 primaries.<\/p>\n \u201cI think everybody\u2019s a bit exhausted talking about politics,\u201d Reyna said. \u201cI tend to turn the TV off a little bit more than I used to.\u201d<\/p>\n A handful of Reyna\u2019s friends and co-workers were on hand for our interview. A quick chat with them around the bar was telling.<\/p>\n Four of the five were Hispanic. Four voted for Trump.<\/p>\n \u201cI feel like he\u2019s creating a lot of chaos,\u201d said Ramon Herrera, the lone Kamala Harris voter in the group. \u201cIt\u2019s a little bit too extreme.\u201d<\/p>\n Inside a bar in Corpus Christi some who support President Donald Trump say they aren’t happy with his approach to enforcement. – CNN<\/p>\n All four of the Trump voters said the president was mostly doing a good job.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat he ran on, he\u2019s addressed,\u201d said Mike Martinez, a Reyna business partner. \u201cHe\u2019s been working on it.\u201d<\/p>\n Three of the four, though, voiced at least some reservations about how he gets things done.<\/p>\n \u201cProbably 80% positive to 20% negative,\u201d said Westly Belcher, who owns a few local small businesses.<\/p>\n Richard Contreras said Trump should assert \u201cbetter control\u201d over ICE.<\/p>\n \u201cGo after the true criminals,\u201d he said. \u201cLeave the abuelos and abuelitas alone.\u201d<\/p>\n None of the five voiced interest in the March primary and no one raised their hand when asked whether Trump\u2019s endorsement might influence their thinking about the primary.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s lost a little juice just because of the methods, the way he is doing it,\u201d said Contreras, a Corpus Christi real estate agent.<\/p>\n Two of the Trump voters were open to voting for a Democrat in November.<\/p>\n Contreras said divided government might force some compromise in Washington. \u201cSomething to think about,\u201d he said. But Contreras also said he had a favorable early impression of GOP candidate Eric Flores \u2014 a fellow veteran.<\/p>\n Celeste Montemayor, the bar manager, sounded most open.<\/p>\n \u201cI do think some things need to change,\u201d Montemayor said. \u201cI just think what we are doing may not be working.\u201d<\/p>\n Trump\u2019s 2024 victory over Harris came with increased Latino support. He won 55% of the Texas Hispanic vote in 2024, up from 41% in 2020 and 37% in 2016.<\/p>\n Rural Kingsville was a Trump stronghold. It\u2019s among the places to watch as the midterm year plays out.<\/p>\n Steve Martinez is associate pastor at Kingsway Family Church, where the congregation is 80% Hispanic. Martinez says he tries to avoid names and political parties when asked for voting advice.<\/p>\n \u201cI always say biblically what I stand for,\u201d Martinez said. \u201cCongress is a big thing right now. I ask a question: What are your views on homosexuality? What are your views on abortion? You know, that is what is important to me.\u201d<\/p>\n Steve Martinez is an associate pastor in Kingsville, Texas, and says he is happy with the job the president has done so far. – CNN<\/p>\n Martinez acknowledged that after Sunday services of late, there are questions about how to square immigration enforcement tactics with Christian values.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is hard, yes, to see some of these families separated and to see all that is going on,\u201d Martnez said. \u201cBut at the same time, I tell people the law is the law, and we have to abide by it.\u201d<\/p>\n Martinez believes most Christian conservatives will stay loyal to Trump and the GOP.<\/p>\n Outside the church, though, is a reminder that kitchen-table issues often drive voting decisions: A long double line of cars lined up for a church food bank. Some arrived four hours before it opened.<\/p>\n \u201cThe need is great,\u201d Martinez said. Some can\u2019t find jobs. Others are on fixed incomes that don\u2019t keep pace with inflation. Some are large families.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cPeople are struggling right now financially,\u201d Martinez said.<\/p>\n Alcazar, the Brownsville ice cream shop owner, said she finds it increasingly difficult to understand Latinos still loyal to Trump and Republicans.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t know if they thought they were excluded from the brown color that we have,\u201d she said. \u201cI just can\u2019t see how they translate that.\u201d<\/p>\n More important to her, though, is persuading more Latinos in her community who think politics doesn\u2019t matter to become midterm voters.<\/p>\n \u201cOur voice matters,\u201d she said. \u201cWe can make a change. This is the year that the Latino community can show up for their people.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"Brownsville](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/57691bfe78d0e4f1afd16f1d81aed5c2.jpeg\"\/)
<\/p>\n![\"Border](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/0e1a8d8ff7b36266310b086aaa1974ab.jpeg\"\/)
<\/p>\n![\"Inside](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/d6a8c044176f6e85dbea5926bf3f2831.jpeg\"\/)
<\/p>\n![\"Steve](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/f70d6d1ca229bf9a6bb773fea7549bfa.jpeg\"\/)
<\/p>\n