The Rio Grande Valley, which sits on the border with Mexico, has been a reliable stronghold for Democrats for a very long time. That’s why, back during the 2020 election, you might remember some articles about a strange turn of events in tiny Zapata County, Texas. That was the only county in the Rio Grande Valley that supported Donald Trump. The rest went for Joe Biden, mostly by comfortable margins — although the margins were slimmer than they were back in 2016.
No one really talked about these results because they aligned perfectly with the Democrats’ worldview. It goes something like this. The Rio Grande Valley is heavily Hispanic. And Hispanics obviously hate Trump because he’s a racist who wants to build a wall and deport them. And, as if that wasn’t bad enough, Trump once posted a tweet that read, “Happy #CincoDeMayo! The best taco bowls are made in Trump Tower Grill. I love Hispanics!” That caused a whole outrage cycle you might remember. CNN went back and forth…