Dallas Morning News: 'Latinos Could Turn Texas Blue in 2020 If Enthusiasm Holds'

The blue wave lapped at the shores of Texas this year — and it was powered by Latino voters.

Though Republicans held on against the current in statewide races, Latinos helped send El Paso’s Veronica Escobar and Houston’s Sylvia Garcia of Houston to Washington, D.C. ...

Democrats won 12 Texas House seats, including five in Dallas, and unseated two North Texas Republican state senators.

And the surge of Latino voters across the state almost made the difference in the nationally watched Senate race between Beto O’Rourke and Ted Cruz.

That has Latino voter mobilization groups and political experts confident that enthusiasm around the 2018 race, paired with natural population growth, is likely to make Texas a truly competitive state by 2020 and maybe even a shade of blue. ...

...Election polling by Latino Decisions in Texas found that about 70 percent of Latinos supported Democratic candidates. And a national Associated Press exit poll found that nearly 70 percent of Latinos reported voting Democratic.

Statewide, Associated Press exit polls showed that 69 percent of Latinos reported voting for O’Rourke compared to 30 percent for Cruz. Similarly, 63 percent of Latinos reported voting for Lupe Valdez for governor over incumbent Gov. Greg Abbott, who got 35 percent.

.@TuckerCarlson: "California was once a solidly Republican state, for generations. It is now among the most Democratic. Why? Immigration. Different people live there. Not surprisingly they vote very differently. Something very similar is happening right now in NV, AZ, TX, [etc.]" pic.twitter.com/EGT8EbYSsH

— The Columbia Bugle 🇺🇸 (@ColumbiaBugle) November 8, 2018