Prices, culture, disillusionment. Central Valley Republicans say Latino gains make sense
Family, hard work, pride in your heritage: These are just some of the values Jerry Reyes says he was raised with that make him “extremely proud” of his roots.
He grew up in the Fresno County town of Selma and comes from a family of Mexican immigrants who crossed the border without documentation and worked in the Central Valley’s agricultural fields, meatpacking plants and construction sites.
“I’m proud to know that that’s where I come from,” he said.
The 24-year-old Fresno State grad and life insurance salesman will be voting in his first-ever Presidential Election on Nov. 5, and he is set on supporting former President Donald Trump.
But even before he casts a vote, Reyes and his family reflect the split within his and other Latino families: Those who support conservative policies and Trump, and others who embrace more liberal political ideologies.
Reyes said taking pride in his Mexican background and being a Republican are not mutually exclusive positions. To him, conservative policies more accurately reflect his family’s immigrant values. He is also an aspiring businessman and said economics are a major reason why he supports Trump. And while he feels some internal conflict over the disparate treatment of immigrants today, he said he believes his family has achieved an American lifestyle that tough border laws serve to protect.
“Voting for Trump, especially when you’re Latino, man, people hate you,” Reyes said. “But you know what you stand for.”
But not all of his family feels the same. Reyes’ grandparents and older sister, he said, are no fans of the former president. And his father is unsure of who would be the better president between Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris.
Although polls show Harris continues to hold a strong majority of Latino support, the Reyes family is an example of the lack of political consensus even within individual Latino families. Reyes himself is a more specific example of what numerous surveys have said about Latinos in recent years: Higher percentages of them are now voicing support for Trump and the Republican Party.
The true size of the shift right among Latinos remains to be seen, but there are subtle hints of it even in deep blue California. A recent voter registration analysis by the Public Policy Institute of California found that, since 2022, Latinos have left the Democratic Party and joined the Republican Party at higher rates than any other ethnic group in the state.
To Lisa Moreno, Central Valley vice chair for the California GOP, the reasons for the shift are very simple: It’s prices. It’s culture. It’s years of feeling disillusioned with the Democratic Party.
“There’s a pride factor about who we are as a people,” said Moreno, who was once a democrat. “We were raised to work hard, to love God, to love our families and do what’s right.
And while Moreno said both of the country’s major political parties have “disregarded” Latinos, it is the Republicans who are now welcoming them. A Latina chairwoman, Jessica Millan Patterson, has been at the helm of the California GOP since 2019. Patterson has been vocal about the party’s need to court Latino voters – and it has done so in California, under her watch.
“If we wanted to grow our party and start winning again, we were not going to do it by only talking to ourselves,” Patterson wrote in a recent op-ed published in The Bee.
A family divided politically
Reyes said his grandparents call Trump “trompas,” a nickname that compares the former president’s mouth to an animal’s trunk.
The nickname is the type of humor commonly found in the Mexican community, Reyes said. “But they really just dislike him.”
His sister, who attended UC Davis, also leans democratic, he said.
Reyes said Trump is not perfect, but he is a businessman who will keep foreign nations in line, put Americans first and fix the nation’s economy. Reyes also believes the Democrats have moved too far left on social issues. He echoed Moreno, the California GOP’s Central Valley vice chair, in the notion that Latinos are inclined to be religious.
“In my opinion, the Democratic Party doesn’t really align themselves with that,” Reyes said.
On immigration and the border, Reyes said he understands that many Latinos have an emotional response to the issue.
“I understand where my roots come from,” he said, but “at the end of the day, you’re American. Whether you were born in Mexico, or you’re born in the U.S., you’re American because you live in this country, you pay taxes, your legacy is here now.”
His father, Floriberto Reyes, has a politically active past. He marched for immigrant rights in Fresno during the Obama administration. He said he and his son have discussed politics extensively, and that he understands the need for border security and why some Latinos have left the Democratic Party.
But Floriberto Reyes also said he believes Trump has used racism to gain support. He too, though, is unsure about whether Latinos should give Harris and the democrats their vote this election. And he agreed that there is no political consensus in his family.
“I respect my children’s decisions, and they all have different beliefs,” he said.
The future of the party?
The party’s conferences have begun including Hispanic engagement events. The Republican National Committee helped the California GOP open three Latino community engagement centers in the state. The party is contacting Latinos in Spanish and in their neighborhoods, Patterson, the chairwoman of the California GOP, wrote in her recent op-ed.
“In all, we picked up five U.S. House seats over back-to-back election cycles, including two seats where a majority of voters are Latinos,” she wrote.
To Moreno, this is just the start.
The Fresno County Republican Party opened its new headquarters this summer with a party. There, Moreno turned to a Bee reporter, pointed to her own face and said: “This face is going to be the face of the Republican Party.”
She meant Latinos are the party’s future. “In our party, it’s important to have Latino leadership,” she told The Bee last month. “I’ll say it loud and proud.”
Moreno described herself as a center-right Republican. She believes there is room in the party for “meeting the needs” of DACA recipients who study and work hard. To her, that would exemplify a dedication to the working class.
She said she knows not everyone in the party agrees with her, and that there are varying levels of conservatism within the GOP. “This is my party, and I’m making it what I want it to be,” she told The Bee last month.
This story was reported in collaboration with PBS VOCES: Latino Vote 2024.
This story was originally published October 26, 2024 at 5:30 AM.
