As South Texas flips solid blue, Project Red gains historic GOP wins

On Election Day, the entire region of south Texas turned blue, including all border counties. Gains Republicans had made over the last two elections were wiped out after voters in the region, many of whom are Hispanic, rejected Trump administration policies and voted against Republicans.Prior to the election, polls showed South Texas voters were primarily upset with President Donald Trump’s economic policies, soured on his endorsed candidates they previously voted for, and many Republicans said they were voting for Democrats, The Center Square reported.
On Election Day, south Texas voters flipped two Republican congressional seats. Now, all congressional seats at the border are held by Democrats.
They also elected Democrats to every statewide office by large margins, from the governor to attorney general to secretaries of state agencies.
“What happened in south Texas in border communities and statewide was President Donald Trump,” Wayne Hamilton, the former executive director of the Republican Party of Texas and Project Red Director, told The Center Square. There were also Republican leadership failures in the state, which impacted south Texas, he said. Despite this, Project Red achieved several wins.
Project Red was founded in 2018 to help recruit Republicans to office in south Texas when few Republicans Ed were elected locally or even filed to run for office. Since then, Project Red has been successful flipping dozens of county-level offices from Democrat to Republican. By 2023, at the height of the border crisis during the Biden administration, Democratic officials were switching parties, including in south Texas, The Center Square reported.
In 2024, polls showed that Hispanic voters, especially in south Texas and in border communities, supported border security enhancement, building a wall deportations, and opposed Biden administration transgender policies, The Center Square reported.
Under the second Trump administration, deportations were overshadowed by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement shootings and businesses losing employees, making it the second most important issue to voters in south Texas. The top issue was the economy and affordability, especially among Hispanic voters, according to multiple polls, The Center Square reported.
In addition to these issues, voters didn’t have strong candidates to support, Hamilton said.
At a statewide level, the Republican Party of Texas “didn’t field the best candidates,” he told The Center Square. “When you have those combinations, that created a problem. Voters also didn’t understand the redistricting issues and Republicans looked really bad. Then you add high costs, including the high cost of gas, and that devastated people. High gas prices devastate poor people.
“You wrap all of that together and voters had enough. They were angry. What happened on Election Day in Texas was all emotion. It was a repudiation of Republicans from the top to the bottom.”
Hamilton was the longest serving executive director of the Republican Party of Texas, from 1997-2023. Under his tenure, more than 650 local offices were flipped Republican statewide. When he helped lead the party, it disposed of its debt, created a working coalition of businesses, tort reformers and conservatives, he said.
Hamilton helped make history when Republicans won control of the Texas House for the first time in state history in 2003. This was after Republicans gained control of the Texas Senate for the first time in state history in 1997.
The Texas legislature was controlled by Democrats since Texas became a state in 1846, during and after Reconstruction.
There have only been five Republican governors in Texas. Hamilton worked for one of them, former Gov. Rick Perry, the third Republican governor of Texas.
Texas’ fifth Republican governor, Greg Abbott, was defeated by Democrat Gina Hinojosa last week.
Hinojosa, from the Rio Grande Valley, is the first Hispanic female and third female elected governor in state history.
In the Rio Grande Valley and border communities, Republicans made gains in local races because Project Red focused on corruption and taxes, Hamilton said.
“We divorced ourselves from state and federal issues and focused on local issues,” he told The Center Square. “Anyone who knows anything about south Texas and the border region knows that virtually every county increases their property taxes every year. They do this every year, and these residents are very poor people. You throw on top of that $6 a gallon diesel and $3.60 gallon of gas and people had enough. We were able to translate that into a victory for Republicans challenging Democrat incumbents.”
Project Red successes in south Texas include three Republicans being elected to county judgeships in Kenedy, LaSalle and Pecos counties.
In LaSalle County, the newly elected judge is the first Republican elected in county history.
In Brooks County, voters elected a Republican to county commissioner’s court – the first Republican ever elected in the county in history.
In Frio County, voters elected their first Republican county commissioner and Justice of the Peace in county history.
In Pecos County, voters ousted all Democrats in Fort Stockton. In Val Verde County, voters elected a Republican as county district clerk.
Hamilton says Project Red expects to continue its successes at the local level in future elections.

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