President Donald Trump’s border agenda could hit a wall in his final two years after Democrats won every governor’s race along the U.S.-Mexico border, a feat the party last pulled off in 1979, according to National Governors Association records cited by Axios on Sunday morning.
The most dramatic flip came in Texas, where Gina Hinojosa defeated Republican Gov. Greg Abbott, who was seeking a fourth term, becoming the first Democrat elected to the office since 1990.
Her win throws the future of Operation Lone Star into question. Abbott launched the border buildup in 2021, and by The Texas Tribune’s count, it has cost the state $11 billion.
“Operation Lone Star needs to only exist to make us safer,” Hinojosa told KRGV-TV in October. “We need a review of Operation Lone Star.” In her words, the program has been “political theatre.”
Axios noted that Hinojosa “can rethink state deployments and enforcement priorities.” Federal law, however, still gives Washington the final word on immigration.
Texas voters also elected a Democratic attorney general for the first time since 1994, part of a clean sweep of the top legal jobs in all four border states. Axios reported that the wins give Democrats “new leverage over state resources, border spending and legal challenges during President Trump’s final two years.”
The party also picked off three Republican-held House seats on the border this month, giving it all 10 for the first time since 2008, according to an analysis from the Associated Press.
Several of those newcomers paired tough talk on security with a defense of immigrant families. Arizona Rep.-elect JoAnna Mendoza pitched that blend, and so did Rep.-elect Bobby Pulido of South Texas in his campaign video.
“Yes, we have to get the criminals out and secure the border,” Pulido said. “But we can do that without destroying families and our South Texas economy.”
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