Why Does The Rio Grande Valley Stay Home On Election Days? Corruption And Stale Discourse
For more stories from the Rio Grande Valley from Pablo De La Rosa, you can can check out his Linktree here.
If you’d like to go straight to reading my Texas Public Radio story that this blog post is about, you can read it here. If you want to listen to the radio feature, audio is available on Soundcloud here.
2022 is a significant election year for Texas — the offices of the governor, lieutenant governor, and attorney general will all be on the ballot. On top of that, some of the most contested congressional districts are up for grabs and more than one of them runs through the Rio Grande Valley.
Between newly drawn district maps, congressional incumbents not seeking reelection or jumping to neighboring districts, the theory that the Valley will turn Rudolph red, a possible conspiracy, and a handful of ‘non-traditional’ campaigns joining the fray — it’s hard to describe the feeling shaking up the Valley right now.
Perhaps these races could be described as the political equivalent of that childhood moment at a party when you’re about to find out if your tías sprang for those jarritos de chamoy and all three flavors of Duvalín or if you’re about to eat nothing but peanuts and oranges — a flashpoint of excitement and terror.
The attention from the national media and the national political parties is happening because the Valley’s voters could shake up the power balance in Congress in 2022 or help support a home run for one of the parties in 2024.
Many of the individuals I spoke to for my reports mentioned that there will be millions flowing in to the region this year “like never before” from multiple political organizations to get voters here to participate.
I spoke to the director of one such organization that plans to spend $16 Million in this election cycle alone in the Rio Grande Valley and similar areas in Texas to mobilize voters.
But after the money is spent, the campaigns run, and one of the parties has the margins they wanted in hand — will the Rio Grande Valley be represented?
From my story:
In the 2020 general election, 66% of Texas’ registered voters cast a ballot on election day. But in Hidalgo County, only 56% of registered voters participated in that election. This contrast increases when considering that only 45% of people in Hidalgo County were registered to vote in comparison with 58.6% of Texans in that election.
Overall, this means three in four people in Hidalgo County alone, including unregistered voters, did not participate in 2020. That’s about 650,000 votes that were never cast in just one Rio Grande Valley county.
I spoke with the leaders of a few political organizations on both sides of the aisle in Hidalgo and Cameron counties to find out why people in our community tend to stay home on election day.
One of the reasons that came up again and again, was people’s apathy towards voting due to widely perceived public corruption across many facets of life in the Valley.
A recent study backs up their sentiments.
Beyond that, there was also a wish for more public discourse on issues and a move away from a regional political system where a small few hold the power.
Is there widespread corruption in the Rio Grande Valley? If you live here and catch the news, you come across the headlines regularly.
More specific details on corruption in our region are a good topic for another story, but just this week:
I also wanted to find out what organizations were involved in mobilizing voters and what their plans are for 2022 and beyond in this story.
The last day to register in order to vote in the March primaries, is January 31.
You can read the article for my report on the Texas Public Radio website or listen to the radio feature here.
