The region spanning the border of Texas and Mexico, or the Rio Grande Valley, has been the epicenter of the illegal alien invasion, which has intensified since Joe Biden took office and opened the southern border.
So leading up to the midterm elections, Republicans targeted three districts in South Texas in hopes of winning over Hispanic voters, who have traditionally favored the Democratic Party.
But in what proved to be a disappointing night for the GOP, only one of the Republican challengers, Monica De La Cruz, managed to beat her Democratic challenger in the 15th Congressional District with 80,869 votes. According to Real Clear Politics, Democrat Michelle Vallejo fell short with only 67,913 votes.
In District 34, Mayra Flores (R) lost to incumbent Vicente Gonzalez (D) by more than 11,000 votes, and in District 28, Henry Cuellar (D), also an incumbent, outpaced Cassy Garcia (R) by nearly 22,000 votes.
"I really do think that the Democrats have put the fear into people that it could be worse," suggests Cathie Adams, a former chairman of the Republican Party of Texas. "And I don't know how. Logic is not entering it."
She suspects a spiritual issue is the root of the problem.
"I just wonder how much zeal there is for humbling ourselves before a holy God and repenting. I'm really thinking that that is our problem," she submits. "I think that we are going after the wrong gusto here, that we are having so much zeal about politics that we're forsaking the righteousness that is required."
Adams says the Republicans are not putting their principles before their politics.
"That is what my heart is grieving about, really -- more than it is not having more of a victory in the state of Texas," she shares. "We could have done better. And what my concern is is that we don't lose our focus on what God is doing and what he is calling us to do in the future."
Tom Zawistowski, president of the We the People Convention and the Ohio Citizens PAC, points out that many analysts believe the abortion issue is what motivated the Democrats to come to the polls. But he is not fully convinced of that.
"They keep telling you to suspend logic, right? To believe that people who can't afford to fill up their gas in their car are more concerned about abortion. It's not true," he asserts. "We just need to stay the course here and see things as clearly as we can. It's not like we didn't win anything. It's just that we had expectations that got quashed, and I think there was a lot to that. I think that this is not an accident. There's no accidents in politics."
Though the GOP did not secure the "red wave" they predicted would carry them to power in Congress, The Texas Tribune notes that the party still "made inroads down the ballot." On that note, Zawistowski says there is some hope.
"We didn't have the red wave we were projecting, but if we take the House, which it looks like we're going to do, and if we take the Senate, which is less likely but still possible, we will have achieved our goals, and we will have made a major rejection of the radical left's policies that have been hurting so many Americans," he concludes.
