WASHINGTON — The big news story out of the Texas primary: The state is virtually certain to send its first two Latinas to the U.S. House of Representatives. Experts say their victories could be used to help boost fellow Democrats in some of the state’s most competitive races.
Sylvia Garcia, a Texas state senator and Veronica Escobar, a former county judge in El Paso, Texas, won their House primaries in heavily Democratic and Latino districts, making their election in November almost a done deal.
“It’s the year of the Latina,” said Mayra Macias, political director for Latino Victory Fund, which works to get Latino Democrats elected to public office.
“Not until yesterday had people — outside Latino political circles — been talking about that it’s a travesty that Texas never elected a Latina” to Congress, Macias said.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, who made history as the first woman, first Californian and first Italian-American to serve as U.S. House speaker, took note of the Garcia and Escobar wins, issuing a statement praising them as “two strong Latinas.”
There had been some fears that crowded primaries and better financed opponents might keep Garcia and Escobar from winning outright or at all. But Escobar won her primary with 61.4 percent of the vote and Garcia won with 63.2 percent.
In 2016 in Texas, 4.8 million or 28 percent of eligible voters were Latino, and about 10.4 million or 39.4 percent of the state’s residents were Hispanic, according to Pew Research Center.
Much of the focus nationally has been on Democratic turnout in the state and whether the state would start a Trump backlash. Democrats doubled their voter turnout, although they still fell 500,000 short of the 1.5 million votes cast by Republicans.
Macias said the elections of Garcia and Escobar could be leveraged strategically by Democrats to win November’s U.S. Senate race between Democrat Beto O’Rourke and incumbent Sen. Ted Cruz, a Republican who is Cuban-American. They also could boost gubernatorial candidate Lupe Valdez, should she survive her runoff.
Valdez, a former Dallas County sheriff, finished with more votes than opponent Andrew White, but failed to get 50 percent of the vote in the Democratic gubernatorial primary. Valdez had 43 percent to 27 percent of the vote for White, son of the state’s former Gov. Mark White, who died last year. Texas runoffs are on May 22.