In the latest such warning, Republican home-builders have declared that southern Texas will never be a red bastion again as President Donald Trump’s crackdown on immigrants has gone too far and affected the construction industry and antagonised the region’s Hispanic population.
For weeks, as Republicans have continued to lose local and state elections, supporters have warned Trump that his violent crackdown on immigrants could cost him the 2026 mid-term elections. The situation is so dire that Texas’ lawmakers have also petitioned Trump now.
Politico has reported that Texas-based home-builders and Republican lawmakers have held a string of meetings with White House officials, including Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, to convey their concerns and call for corrective measures.
There are signs that Trump has also been rattled by the pushback to his crackdown that has seen federal agents kill two civilians and clash with citizens and immigrants alike on a near-daily basis. He has warned Republicans that he would be impeached upon losing the mid-terms.
Trump has also announced an end to the crackdown in Minnesota and withdrawn National Guard from several Democrat-run cities.
But it remains to be seen if such actions would control the damage. For weeks, surveys have shown that the Republicans would lose mid-terms.
| Pollster | Dates | Sponsor | Margin | Democrat | Republican |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| YouGov | Jan. 30 – Feb. 2 | Economist | Democrat +4 | 44% | 40% |
| Morning Consult | Jan. 30 – Feb. 1 | — | Democrat +5 | 47% | 42% |
| Public Policy Polling | Jan. 29–30 | — | Democrat +7 | 48% | 41% |
| HarrisX/Harris Poll | Jan. 28–29 | Harvard CAPS | Democrat +3 | 47% | 44% |
| HarrisX/Harris Poll | Jan. 28–29 | Harvard CAPS | Democrat +4 | 52% | 48% |
| Marquette University Law School | Jan. 21–28 | — | Democrat +7 | 52% | 45% |
| Cygnal Political | Jan. 27–28 | — | Democrat +4 | 48% | 44% |
| McLaughlin & Associates | Jan. 21–27 | — | Democrat +2 | 46% | 44% |
| The Argument/Verasight | Jan. 26–27 | — | Democrat +4 | 52% | 48% |
| Echelon Insights | Jan. 22–26 | — | Democrat +5 | 49% | 44% |
| Beacon Research/Shaw & Company Res. | Jan. 23–26 | Fox News | Democrat +6 | 52% | 46% |
| YouGov | Jan. 23–26 | Economist | Democrat +5 | 43% | 38% |
| Morning Consult | Jan. 20–25 | — | Democrat +1 | 44% | 43% |
| Morning Consult | Jan. 23–25 | — | Democrat +2 | 45% | 43% |
| Ipsos | Jan. 23–25 | Reuters | Democrat +4 | 41% | 37% |
The Republicans have been on a losing streak since Trump assumed office — and many of these losses have been attributed to his extremist agenda.
Last year, Republicans lost governors’ elections in New Jersey and Virginia and Democrats won all 13 state-level elections, flipping 21 per cent of Republican-held legislature seats. The streak expanded to deeply conservative pockets in 2026.
Earlier this month, Democrat Taylor Rehmet beat Trump-backed Republican candidate by a 14-point margin in a constituency that Trump had won in 2024 and Democrat Chasity Verret Martinez won by 24 points in a constituency that Trump had won in 2024.
Trump scores a self-goal in Texas
In the 2024 presidential election, Trump gained 10 percentage points compared to the 2020 election and around 20 percentage points than 2016.
But Trump’s supporters have now warned that such gains could have been lost — thanks to his crackdown on immigrants.
Under the violent crackdown, masked armed agents swarm at any location and detain people violently. Such raids have been frequent at workplaces like retail stories and construction sites where immigrants, legal as well illegal, often work in large numbers. And such raids have battered these sectors.
Agriculture, food processing, and hospitality are some other migrant-dependent sectors that have been battered by Trump’s crackdown.
Politico has reported that construction bosses have held meeting with White House officials and Congress members to warn them that raids at work sites and migrant communities have scared away workers and made labour expensive.
They have warned that Trump’s support among Hispanic voters —the core electorate in southern Texas bordering Mexico— is eroding, according to the report.
“I told straight up: South Texas will never be red again,” Mario Guerrero, the CEO of the South Texas Builders Association, told Politico.
Guerrero, a Trump voter who traveled to Washington earlier this month, said he urged the Trump administration and Republican lawmakers to ease up on crackdown at construction sites and warned that employees are afraid to go to work.
Last week, construction bosses held meeting with Wiles, House Speaker Mike Johnson, and lawmakers, and discussed growing concerns about growing unpopularity of the crackdown among the region’s Hispanic voters, according to Politico.
Democratic Representative Henry Cuellar, who was also part of these meetings, told Politico that all industry representatives said at the onset that they support Trump but admitted that “we just never thought that they were going to be coming after our folks, our workers”.
“They’re builders, contractors, lumber companies, cement companies, in the finance part of it. That type of ripple effect has hurt their economy. Not only individuals, but their economy,” said Cueller about conversation with Texan construction bosses.
Texan lawmakers and industrialists are not the only ones warning Trump. Earlier this year, Florida State Senator Ileana Garcia, Co-Founder of Latinas for Trump, warned the Republicans would lose the mid-terms because of the crackdown on immigrants.
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