More than a thousand people gathered at the Fairmont Austin last week for the annual UnidosUS conference, where one question surfaced repeatedly: How are Latino voters feeling nearly two years after helping fuel Republican gains in Texas and across the country?
During one economic panel discussion, attendees used their phones to answer questions about the issues that mattered most to them. As they submitted their responses, a word cloud began forming on the screen at the front of the room.
"Cost of living is the top concern, and jobs and wages are the second top concern," Santiago Sueiro, a senior policy analyst with UnidosUS, said during the discussion. "This trumps all other concerns, even higher than immigration, higher than healthcare."
The answers echoed concerns that helped reshape Texas politics in 2024, when President Donald Trump improved his support among Hispanic voters and Republicans made significant gains in heavily Latino communities, particularly in South Texas.
Less than two years later, conversations in Austin suggested some voters are reconsidering that support.
That doesn't necessarily mean they are embracing Democrats. Instead, speakers and attendees described an electorate caught between competing priorities.
"They're happy that the border is quiet and that some of the chaos of the Biden administration is over," Andrea Flores, a senior fellow with FWD.us, told The Texas Newsroom. "But when it comes to mass deportation, what ICE is doing, what Border Patrol is doing, they oppose that."
Affordability concerns also remained front and center throughout the conference.
Conference organizers pointed to polling showing that about 20% of Latino Texans who voted for Trump in 2024 say they would not vote for him today.
If enough voters change course, Democrats could benefit.
Austin resident Olivia Dominguez attended the conference after losing her job earlier this year. Asked which party was doing a better job of connecting with Latino voters, she hesitated and eventually settled on a cautious answer.
"I know the disappointment in what's going on with immigration and our dollar," she said. "I would say maybe the Democrat might have an edge."
Texas Democrats are hoping more voters come to the same conclusion.
Gina Hinojosa, the party's nominee for governor, pointed to the growing influence of Latino voters while speaking to conference attendees.
"To give you a sense of our importance in this election, in 2018, the closest a Democrat came to flipping Texas in recent history, Beto O'Rourke ran against Ted Cruz and he got 64% of the Latino vote," Hinojosa said.
"When I get 64% of the Latino vote in 2026, I win."
But Democrats face challenges of their own.
Winning back Hispanic voters will take more than speeches and campaign appearances.
Democrats are still trying to understand why support eroded in recent years, especially in South Texas, where Republicans enjoyed some of their biggest gains.
Sofia Zuniga traveled from Miami to attend the conference. Although she lives in Florida, she said many of the concerns she hears there mirror the ones she heard in Texas.
"I do wish that Democrats would put more of a priority with Latino voters, and I think they're doing that now," Zuniga said. "They're realizing that they lost a lot of Hispanic voters during the last elections."
There have already been signs of movement.
"In the first round of off-cycle elections, we saw in New Jersey, in a Florida mayor's race, in Pennsylvania, you saw a swing of Latino voters back towards Democrats in those early races," Flores said. "Now it's a question of, will we see that again? In what margin and what numbers?"
Whether that trend reaches Texas remains unclear.
But the conversations in Austin suggested that the issues shaping Latino voters have not changed much. Rising prices, jobs and immigration remain at the center of the discussion.
What may be changing is which party voters trust to address them.
Copyright 2026 KUT News
