Video by Nick Valencia and Sydney Guthrie

1 in 5 regret their choice to vote for President Donald Trump — now a Democrat could win them back. We sat down with Bobby Pulido and Latino Trump voters. Some voted for him 3x, but they say prices are too high and ICE is out of control.

TRANSCRIPT

NICK VALENCIA, MORE PERFECT UNION: There’s been a lot of talk about … “The Latino Vote.” Every single election in my lifetime, political pundits have spent a lot of time and money trying to analyze the motivations of Latino voters. But we’re going to do something different. We’re going to go out on the ground in the Rio Grande Valley to actually talk to voters.

VALENCIA: 1 in 5 Latino men regret voting for President Trump. That’s you.

EFRAIN GOMEZ JR., BUSINESS OWNER: It’s probably higher than that.

VALENCIA: That’s you. That’s you.

MARIO GUERRERO, BUSINESS OWNER: People are under stress. People are trying to figure out how to put food on the table.

COMMUNITY MEMBERS: The prices of food and the prices of gas and the price of everything keeps going up and up and up and up.

ROBERT DELIR, RETIRED: They’ve seen politicians promise this or that or the other, and they’ve seen politicians turn on those promises. ]

VALENCIA: It’s true that Latinos have shifted dramatically towards Trump in the last two elections. With Latino men, it’s even more dramatic. And, it’s also true that just two years into Trump’s second term, Latino voters could be shifting back again. But, there’s a much deeper story going on that the mainstream media and the leadership of both parties isn’t telling you.

Democrats might be confident they’re winning Latinos back this time but, what happens after this one election if they don’t deliver on their promises? That question might be coming to a head right here in Texas’ 15th district.

The incumbent is Monica De La Cruz, a Republican. Her challenger is new to politics: Bobby Pulido, a Tejano star who retired from his music career to run for office. He’s an unconventional Democrat bringing a shock to the system of South Texas politics.

So what is it about him?

We travelled deep into the conservative heart of the district and sat Pulido down with Latinos who voted for Trump but don’t like what they see. And we watched as Pulido made his pitch to get their vote and give them a convenient pathway into the Democratic Party.

MARIO GUERRERO, BUSINESS OWNER: During the Biden administration, the government just was off, man. It looked weak. It just didn’t look strong, man.

VALENCIA: Mario grew up in the Valley. He runs a construction company. It’s been a family business for years. He voted for Trump in 2016, 2020, and 2024.

GUERRERO: Mom was making dinner, and Dad was in the living room watching TV. And one of the shows that I would watch with Dad was The Apprentice. I believe we were conditioned to keep seeing him, right? And there’s a certain group of people that like to see success. I like success, man. I like success, and I like for people to be successful.

ROBERT DELIR, RETIRED: I voted for Trump during his first term

VALENCIA: Robert also lives in the Rio Grande Valley. Like many of his neighbors, up until recently he was a Trump voter.

DELIR: He promised a whole lot of stuff, and I fell for it, you know. ‘Oh, the country is going to get better. He’s going to bring this economy back, and we’re going to be where we need to be.’

VALENCIA: Texas’s 15th district stretches from the Rio Grande Valley up to the suburbs of San Antonio. It is more than 80% Hispanic and predominantly working-class. It moved significantly right in 2020 and 2024, especially amongst Latino men.

Mario and Robert now think differently about Trump’s success.

[TRUMP CLIP: We’re going to win so much, you may even get tired of winning. And you’ll say ‘please, please, it’s too much winning.’]

GUERRERO: Tired of winning would be that the market is stable. Prices and materials for construction are reasonable. People are able to build product and move it out. People are able to give work to the workers that they’ve had. The workers can work without any sort of worry that they can’t even go to the job site because they might be harassed by a state trooper or a police officer here in the city because they’re going to call ICE on them.

[NEWS CLIP: New tonight, experts say ICE is intensifying operations across the country. Sources NBC News almost 10,000 people have been arrested in just five days.}

VALENCIA: How much of what you’ve seen with President Trump’s mass deportation policy has had an impact on you shifting away from the Republican Party?

DELIR: Oh my God.

VALENCIA: A lot?

DELIR: I could not in any good conscience vote or support a Republican candidate.

GUERRERO: We are a border town, and we have people that have been here for 15, 20 years that have been providing a life for their families. And I believe that we need to respect that as a country. And unfortunately, when Mr. Trump started doing what he was doing, I had never seen the level of anxiety that I saw. I had never seen business owners call me at the level where it’s like, ‘We can’t get people to go to work.’

VALENCIA: You had this video that went viral

GUERRERO, ON VIDEO: Mr. Trump, you’re supposed to be our hero, man. But I don’t understand how this makes any sense for anyone.

VALENCIA: Tell me about it.

GUERRERO: It was a cry for help, man. It was a cry for help because I wasn’t seeing our local politicians stressing the amount of impact this is having on our economy — on our builders. And when I wasn’t seeing our politicians, from our mayors to our commissioners, raising awareness that they are picking up people, literally picking them up with proper documentation to be here, why are you our leader?

DELIR: When we’re out on the expressway and we’re out there with our signs protesting and stuff, 95, 96 percent of the response we get from people are positive.

VALENCIA: What would have been like, you know, maybe during Trump 1.0.

DELIR: Oh my gosh.

VALENCIA: Would you even have been out there?

DELIR: No. And I would have laughed at the people that would have gone out there.

VALENCIA: You might be asking yourself, ‘why did these guys vote for Trump if they’re upset about his immigration policy? He was very open about what he wanted to do.’ Well, the flip side is they have a lot of disagreements with Democrats on this issue too.

GUERRERO: The reason I was, you know, inclined to vote for Trump was because during the Biden administration, what we saw was a huge influx of immigrants at our Border. I believe we live in the best country in the world. We have billionaires that could throw rockets into the sky. So why is it that we don’t have a secure border?

VALENCIA: In this political vacuum created by distrust of how both Trump and Democrats have approached the border and the economy, a new political contender has stepped forward.

Last year, Democrat Bobby Pulido launched a campaign for Texas’ 15th Congressional District, taking on Republican incumbent Monica De La Cruz.

Bobby was born and raised in Edinburg, Texas. He rose to fame as a successful Tejano musician before deciding to enter politics.

VALENCIA, TO PULIDO: I would love for you to introduce yourself to people that may not know who you are.

BOBBY PULIDO, CONGRESSIONAL CANDIDATE: I spent 30 years singing. But before that, I was a Texas boy stater in high school. I studied political science at Saint Mary’s University. I have been very, very politically engaged, albeit not publicly, this whole time.

VALENCIA: He is now making the case for his candidacy as a Democrat in a Trump-supporting region.

PULIDO: It’s a K-shaped economy. There’s definitely more people falling into poverty than not.

VALENCIA: How do you see that reflected here in the Valley?

PULIDO: People are struggling.

VALENCIA: Businesses closing? Gas prices going up?

PULIDO: Absolutely. Yeah. And we as Democrats have not really talked about the prosperity issue. What are we doing to talk about anything that’s economically related? Nothing.

VALENCIA: To find out whether Bobby’s economic message was connecting with voters who felt abandoned by both political parties, we brought together Bobby, Mario, and several local residents for a roundtable discussion about Pulido’s candidacy and the challenges facing the region.

EFRAIN GOMEZ JR.: So my name is Efrain Gomez Junior. I’m from Donna, Texas, a little small town here in the [Rio Grande Valley]. I’m a construction owner. I’m here as a two-time Trump supporter.

RUBEN RUIZ JR., LAND DEVELOPER: My name is Ruben Ruiz Jr. I’m a land developer, builder also here in the Valley. I’ve been doing this for 24 years now. I am a Republican. I voted Republican for many years.

GUERRERO: My name is Mario Guerrero. I voted for Mr. Trump every time he was on the ballot.

VALENCIA: What are some of the biggest issues that voters are facing here right now?

GOMEZ: My wife is a healthcare professional. Ask me if I have healthcare.

VALENCIA: Do you have healthcare?

GOMEZ: I don’t.

GUERRERO: And they just made a billionaire a trillionaire. They just made that happen. So now Elon’s going to go ahead and buy the rest of Boca Chica.

GOMEZ: Meanwhile, I’m adding water to my soap bottle just to make it last longer.

PULIDO: The Rio Grande Valley was a farming community. The one thing that unites us all is that we come from nothing. And one thing that unites us is we always want our kids to do better than what we’ve done. And right now that’s not happening.

VALENCIA: In 2024, Donald Trump successfully courted working-class Latino voters by prioritizing the economy and border security, but many of those same voters are now starting to feel disillusioned.

VALENCIA, TO PARTICIPANTS: 1 in 5 Latino men regret voting for President Trump.

[GOMEZ, RUIZ, and GUERRERO raise their hands.}

GOMEZ: It’s probably higher than that.

VALENCIA: That’s you, that’s you, that’s you. How did that happen? How did you go from being ardent Trump supporters to now not?

RUIZ: Everything he promised, he forgot about. So, yes, I regret voting for him.

VALENCIA: But this is a conservative place — South Texas.

GOMEZ: We’re conservative, but when you start, like, you start attacking our family, we’re such a tight-knit community that you’re attacking our families.

VALENCIA: As Bobby told us, he’s campaigning on economic issues, and those are cutting through to these voters. But immigration is on top of their minds too. And the way they tell it, the two issues are deeply connected as the ICE crackdowns have had a major economic impact on this district and their businesses.

PULIDO: It’s not only that they’re getting out people that are undocumented, they go and detain people with legal U.S. green cards.

RUIZ: They detain naturalized citizens, okay?. So how can you — I mean, they did the paperwork. They did everything right. Why [are] you detaining them?

GUERRERO: They’re scaring people, bro. That’s the thing. And then because people are scared, they’re afraid to go to the job site.

PULIDO: That’s right, a community that is living in fear and paralyzed is not a community that can function, right? When the thing was getting bad, and they were raiding everybody, work just went to a standstill.

If you’re somebody that’s in that business and you say, man, ‘I got a loan out on this project, and I can’t get it going, I need somebody to, at least a shoulder to cry on or go, hey, let me see what I can do.’ Whatever. The last thing you want is for somebody to ignore you.

VALENCIA: There’s still a little trepidation about whether or not Bobby will go and be the Bobby of the Rio Grande when he goes to Washington, D.C. Do you guys worry about that at all? That he’ll switch up on you?

GUERRERO: Now that we know that we can go to Washington at any time, I’m just going to show up at Bobby’s office like, ‘yo, let’s go have lunch.’ I’m being serious — we’ll bring the Valley to you.

VALENCIA: Pulido’s opponent, incumbent Congresswoman Monica De La Cruz, has represented Texas’ 15th Congressional District since 2023. De La Cruz has attacked Bobby’s past as a Tejano star, saying,

[DE LA CRUZ CLIP: South Texas isn’t just a stop on a comeback tour for me.]

VALENCIA: And for some voters, these attacks are resonating.

VOTER 1: I’m real skeptical of people that pop up out of nowhere.

VALENCIA: And that’s Bobby’s story?

VOTER 1: Yeah, you just popped up out of nowhere. Where’s your public service? Where did you go? What did you do?

VOTER 2: I had never heard of him even considering politics, you know, and for him to now be in the race. Well, you know, I mean…

VALENCIA: Kind of surprising?

VOTER 2: Well, you know, because now it’s not going to be him. It’s going to be all his backing, you know, the people that are actually pulling the strings. They got somebody with a good name. You know, he’s very popular.

VALENCIA: What are the issues that voters here care about that Pulido might be missing, or uninformed on.

VOTER 1: I just think they want him to sing. You know, sing. But I mean, you know, are you going to have the Valley’s best interest in mind?

GUERRERO: The person he’s running against is Monica de La Cruz. Why didn’t they — I’m pretty sure people have said this many times, ‘she should have stuck to signing insurances.’ That’s what she did.

I want a politician to understand who we are, what our community is built off of. There’s not one building in the Valley that has not been touched by an immigrant hand. We need representatives to understand that. And we do have that, except for one.

VALENCIA: Despite broad community concern, Monica De La Cruz has continued to vote for funding increases for ICE and border security. Just last month, she voted to pass the Secure America Act, a bill backed by the Trump administration which allocated nearly $70 billion specifically to ICE and U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

PULIDO: My biggest issue with her [DE LA CRUZ] is that she does not understand. There’s so many people that I know that have so many questions and have been calling for a town hall forever. They just have questions. They just want, like, answers. Do something.Like, she’s really, like, absent.

VALENCIA: In March, Monica De La Cruz released a campaign video criticizing Pulido, arguing —

[DE LA CRUZ CLIP: This election isn’t about who you want performing at your niece’s quinceañera.]

VALENCIA: The Pulido campaign capitalized on the remark, and promptly put out an open call for invitations to perform at quinceañeras. They received over 1,000 responses in the first 24 hours. We tagged along with Bobby to several of these quinceañeras to get a firsthand look.

[PULIDO performs at a quinceañera.]

VALENCIA: Why go into politics at a time where people don’t trust politicians at an astronomical percentage?

PULIDO: I don’t blame them.

VALENCIA: You want to change that?

PULIDO: Yes, because — because the thing is like, most politicians go in there and it’s just all about their party loyalty. People want you to put them before your party. Don’t worry about the party, worry about us.

[PULIDO sings at a quinceañera.]

VALENCIA: As my time in Texas ended, I kept going back to what I heard in the roundtable. These guys who voted for Trump were opposed to the current administration’s crackdown, and that’s part of what’s motivating them to vote for Bobby. But, they’re also not solidly Democratic voters now.

RUIZ: We don’t want the chaos anymore. We don’t want chaos, period.

GUERRERO: Well, we have chaos right now, you know what I’m saying? It’s like we went from one extreme to another.

VALENCIA: That means there’s a gap wide open beyond this one candidate. And Democrats should be paying attention to this race, not just because Bobby is an unconventional candidate, but because these voters are wrestling with a tension that neither party has been able to solve.

VALENCIA: Next election, you could be up for grabs again if Pulido doesn’t deliver on his promises or in his word?

GUERRERO: I mean, I think that anyone would be.

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