The leader of House Democrats' campaign operation credited Latino voters on Friday with handing her party control of Congress, saying Democrats could not have won majorities in the House and Senate without them.
Suzan DelBene, the Washington Democrat who chairs the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, said Latino turnout made the difference in competitive races in Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Pennsylvania and Texas.
Democrats have so far won 253 House seats, far more than the 218 needed for a majority. Republicans have won 161, and dozens of contests remain too close to call.
DelBene said Democrats flipped 27 districts that President Donald Trump carried by double digits in 2024. Nearly all of the party's Latino candidates won, she said, and 54 Latinos will sit in the 120th Congress when it convenes in January, a number she called historic.
She accused Trump and his party of breaking 2024 campaign promises to bring down inflation and to aim mass deportations only at the most dangerous offenders. Instead, she said, Republicans pursued an anti-Latino agenda marked by high costs and aggressive Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations.
Rep.-elect Johnny Garcia, a Democrat who flipped a newly drawn Texas district designed to favor a Republican, said Latino voters were fed up with inflation, high gas prices and the unpopular war in Iran. Residents, he said, simply want to afford groceries and utility bills on the wages they earn.
Miller pick draws rebuke
A Pew Research Center report released in October found that the economy ranked as a top issue for Latinos.
As the press conference was underway, Trump announced he would name Stephen Miller, the architect of his mass deportation campaign, as White House chief of staff. Miller replaces Susie Wiles, Trump's longtime aide and the highest-ranking White House official to leave after Tuesday's results.
The fact that the president is putting Stephen Miller in that seat just speaks that he’s not learned his lesson
Maria Teresa Kumar, leader of Voto Latino
Maria Teresa Kumar, who leads Voto Latino, a nonprofit that works to register young Latino and Hispanic voters, said the choice showed Republicans were again misreading the public mood. She said the administration's immigration crackdown drove young Latinos, many casting ballots for the first time, to the polls.
