We can all agree that one of the greatest sources of media unity over the past four years has been their view that Donald Trump is unapologetically racist, especially towards Latinos.

So let's talk about Starr County, Texas.

THREAD 1/11

Starr County, TX is a 96% Hispanic community way down south on the US-Mexico border. Click on the map and you'll see it down near the tip. https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/starrcountytexas

2/11

Pre-Covid, Starr County had the highest unemployment rate in Texas -- 9.8 percent -- and the 3rd lowest per capita income in **all of the USA.** Just $7,069.

3/11
https://txcip.org/tac/census/morecountyinfo.php?MORE=1042
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starr_County,_Texas#Demographics

Starr County, TX was hit hard by Covid-19, too.

186 people have died with Covid in Starr County, which has a population of just 60,000.

(Context for DC folks: Arlington, VA has had 154 fatalities, and has a population of 236,000.)

4/11
https://dshs.texas.gov/coronavirus/TexasCOVID19DailyCountyFatalityCountData.xlsx

Okay, so with that setup -- the election...

In 2016, Trump lost Starr County 79% to 19%. No big surprise, right?

Total votes cast were 11,740. Trump got just 2,224 of them.

https://elections.sos.state.tx.us/elchist319_county214.htm

5/11

In 2020, there was a surge in voting in Starr County, TX.

The total votes cast were up 48%, to 17,447.

(By comparison, Texas turnout increased by about 30%)

Well, who won Starr County in 2020?

6/11

Trump lost Starr County again

BUT... by just 52% to 47%.

He increased his Starr County vote total by *6,000* votes.

7/11

Take a step back.

All of this is on the heels of an elite consensus, going back to the Bush 1st term, that the party needed to be very liberal on immigration. For policy, but especially for *politics.*

8/11

That meant that the GOP "must" accept mass amnesty, open the borders to cheap labor, curb workplace enforcement, and increase legal immigration numbers as well.

Then, and ONLY THEN, *might* Latinos think about voting GOP.

Demography is destiny, etc.

9/11

Then Trump comes along and refuses to support amnesty, not even for DREAMERS, sorta-starts building a border wall, bad-mouths border-crossers, and faces heart-wrenching stories of illegal migrants' children being separated from their families. 10/11

And he goes from losing 79-19 to losing 52-47 in Starr County, TX?

So what happened?

11/11
END

(oh, sorry, did you think I knew the answer?)