Donald Trump with Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) at Turning Point USA's AmericaFest 2024 at the Phoenix Convention Center in Phoenix, Arizona on December 22, 2024 (Gage Skidmore/Flickr)
During a Monday morning, December 29 appearance on MS NOW, conservative Republican Sarah Matthews — who served as deputy White House press secretary in the first Trump Administration but is now an outspoken critic of President Donald Trump — argued that liberal firebrand Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas) is probably too progressive for Texas' 2026 U.S. Senate race. But she didn't think the seat is totally out of reach for Democrats with a more centrist nominee.
Texas remains a red state; Trump carried it by roughly 14 percent in 2024. Yet it's far from the reddest of the red states, and Matthews believes that Republicans have vulnerabilities there — some of which Dallas-based journalist Mike Lee (not to be confused with GOP senator from Utah) identifies in a December 29 Politico Playbook column.
"Texas is still Trump country," Lee reports, "but the president's economic policies are starting to sting — and the fallout could hurt Republicans at the ballot box in 2026. Donald Trump took 56 percent of the vote in Texas when he won in 2024, improving his margins from both of his previous campaigns. Republicans also held onto their two-decade majority in the state legislature in the Lone Star State. But as 2025 closes out, polls show growing unrest within the Texas economy, and voters are beginning to blame Trump and Republicans for failing to produce results."
Texas is heavily Latino, and many Latinos voted for Trump there in 2024. But Lee notes that according to a UnidosUS survey of Latinos in November, two-thirds of the respondents were dissatisfied with his handling of the economy.
UnidosUS organizer Eric Holguín told Politico, "Right now, there's such a deep level of anger about what's happening."
Trump's immigration policies, according to Lee, are another liability for him in Texas.
"There are signs that Trump's signature policies are responsible for some of the malaise," Lee explains. "Trump's immigration raids may be hurting the broader Texas economy, according to the Dallas Federal Reserve. The raids have hit permanent residents and foreign students, and the fear has made foreign-born people more likely to miss work and less likely to visit shops and restaurants, the Fed's Texas Business Opportunity Survey said."
Lee adds, "About 13 percent of companies reported they were having a harder time finding and retaining workers, while only 2 percent said it was easier, the (UnidosUS) survey found. Hispanic Texans in the Rio Grande Valley were surprised to see ICE agents raiding local businesses, the AP reported back in July. Many of them voted for Trump and 'didn’t realize his deportation campaign would focus on their neighbors.'"
Read Mike Lee's full Politico Playbook column at this link.
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