Washington, DC – Voters across the country delivered a sweeping rebuke of Donald Trump and Stephen Miller’s lawless, violent, and deadly mass deportation agenda on Tuesday, with Latino voters among those leading the charge. From the Rio Grande Valley to Maine, voters said no to rising costs, threats to our democracy, and cruelty in the streets, reshaping the political map.
Vanessa Cárdenas, Executive Director of America’s Voice, issued the following statement:
“Trump asked voters to vote as if he was on the ballot, and vote they did. The 2026 midterms became a referendum on his agenda– with mass deportation at its center– and voters resoundingly rejected it. For their part, Latino voters roared back. For almost two years they have had a target on their back – no matter their citizenship status – simply because of how they look or the language they speak. Their historic voting turnout is shattering records and represents a sea change for Latino voter engagement. While the economy is always a top issue for this community, poll after poll shows they are angry at the abuse of power, cruelty, and overreach of the mass deportation agenda.
“Today, we thank the American voters from across the spectrum – rural and urban, from coast-to-coast – who delivered a sharp rejection of the Trump agenda. We send our gratitude to the organizers and all the people who work tirelessly to ensure Americans are able to cast their vote. We join them in celebrating the record number of Americans who made their voices and their choices heard. And today, we turn to the urgent work of accountability and working towards common sense policy solutions to improve our immigration system.”
The results bore out America’s Voice’s pre-election memo, which warned that mass deportation had put the House out of reach for Republicans and highlighted vulnerable incumbents who voted to fund the anti-immigrant agenda.
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Those who funded mass deportation paid the price. In Texas’s majority-Latino 15th District, which Trump carried in 2024, Bobby Pulido unseated Rep. Monica De La Cruz. In Colorado’s 8th District, Manny Rutinel defeated Rep. Gabe Evans, who voted to fund the crackdown and then tried to distance himself from it. In California’s 22nd District, Randy Villegas defeated Rep. David Valadao, who defended Trump’s raids even as agents swept the Central Valley weeks before Election Day.
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Latino voters shifted sharply. About 6 in 10 Hispanic voters backed the Democrat in their House race, according to the AP Voter Poll, two years after roughly 4 in 10 voted for Trump. In Texas, James Talarico became the first Democrat to win a U.S. Senate race in the state since 1988.
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Turnout surged. Early voting set a midterm record of more than 57 million ballots, according to the University of Florida Election Lab. In Texas, nearly 1.8 million Latino voters cast early ballots, up 87 percent from the same point in 2022, according to an NBC News analysis of TargetSmart data.
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Mass deportation and costs drove the shift. About 6 in 10 voters said the administration’s immigration enforcement had gone too far, as did two-thirds of Latino voters in a September NBC News/Telemundo poll. About 7 in 10 Hispanic voters said on Tuesday that his policies had worsened the economy, according to the AP Voter Poll.
Read America’s Voice’s pre-election memo, “Why Mass Deportation Has Put the House Out of Reach for Republicans,” here.
