A Texas senate seat flipped from democrat to republican this week for the first time in 139 years.  Republican Pete Flores, a former game warden, defeated former Democratic Congressman Pete Gallego in a senate district covering around 800,000 border residents.  Because the district is 73 percent African-American and Hispanic, the republican victory has gained a little bit of attention [SEE HERE].

Many of the articles citing the republican victory point to the strong campaigning by Pete Flores, and then jump to highlight the possibilities represented by this large district victory.  All of that is true.  However, the one important aspect missing within all political analysis is a failure to recognize that Latino votes are *not* monolithic.
A Puerto Rican Hispanic is to a Mexican Hispanic as a New Yorker is to a Montanan.  While it is true culturally the Puerto Rican base is favorable to democrats, the South American and Cuban vote is not politically analogous.  Nor is the Mexican voting bloc identifiable with either PR, Cuban or South American. Each group is NOT interchangeable; and each group has its own cultures and identities that are not in line with Democrat Socialism – actually, far from it.

Go to a Mexican quinceanera celebration and you will not find a hot-bed of purple-haired activists railing against ‘toxic-masculinity’.  Exactly the opposite is true. The role of a strong male head-of-household, and protector, is ingrained within the culture.  When Donald Trump first began campaigning, we pointed out the Latino cultural connection to his message based on strength, national pride and ‘the patròne effect‘.

[…]  It is absurdly common for this reality to be misunderstood by business interests and the media.  Whether this misunderstanding is accidental, naivete’ or intentionally done for ideological broadcast purposes is essentially a moot point; the truth is divergent from the MSM presentation. (more)

It is a big mistake to view any group based on inappropriate politically motivated identity politics.   The republican victory by Pete Flores is a prime example of how all candidates need to include everyone as part of the MAGA coalition.