Texas Turnout Works to Boost Youth Voting in the Rio Grande Valley

Much has been written about favorable Republican trendlines in Texas’s Rio Grande Valley, one of the poorest parts of the state and a region historically friendly to the Democratic Party. Donald Trump substantially improved his vote share in South Texas between 2016 and 2020, and in 2022, Monica De La Cruz became the first Republican elected in TX-15, which covers part of the RGV, since the district’s advent in 1903. 

De La Cruz’s re-election race in TX-15 this year is one of two campaigns in the RVG where Democrats are anxiously looking to reverse Republican Party momentum. The other is to the east of De La Cruz’s district in TX-34, where Democratic incumbent Vincente Gonzalez is seeking to stave off former GOP congresswoman Mayra Flores. These races likely will represent a kind of bellwether for national results; in particular, if the Republicans continue to make gains here, it will underscore Trumpism’s strong appeal to working-class Latino voters.

Young voters will help shape how this political battle plays out, both in the fall and in the coming years. Texas Turnout Rio Grande Valley, a nonpartisan youth engagement group based in McAllen, Texas, focuses on empowering these voters. 

The Power of the Potential Youth Vote in the Rio Grande Valley

“Over 60% of Hidalgo County residents are under the age of 35,” noted Clarissa Rojas, Texas Turnout’s program director. “But the average voter is over the age of 60.” The county has one of the lowest overall rates of voter turnout in Texas. 

Rojas, however, refuses to blame RGV residents for these numbers.

“It is easy to point to low turnout and blame it on voter apathy,” she said. “But voters care. They care about healthcare. They care about access to good-paying jobs. They care about making sure their children have access to quality education. The more that we point the finger at voters for not turning out, the more that we lose them.”

Rather than pointing that finger, Texas Turnout is seeking to widely expand the voter registration rolls in the RGV, with a focus on young people.  It works directly with and at schools in the region to boost democratic engagement. 

“As an organization, we are invested in working with schools to create quality, educational programming to reach students in the Rio Grande Valley,” explained Rojas.

Such programming can include simply “having conversations with students 1:1” so as to understand their values as well as speaking in high school classrooms in such a way that “culturally affirms what we care about most in the RGV.”

How Texas Turnout is Mobilizing Young Voters in the 2024 Election

Specifically for the 2024 campaign, Rojas adds that “we will be doing phone banking, text banking, and parties at the polls. We also conduct student leadership programming. In July, we’ll host our third Brewing Democracy series where we train rising seniors on getting out the vote. We will send out over 20,000 nonpartisan bilingual mailers to households throughout Hidalgo and Cameron counties.”

The long-term vision of Texas Turnout is simple — to ensure that young people in the Rio Grande Valley are active participants in democracy.

“Voting is the simplest way to exercise power in our democracy,” said Rojas. “The work we do is about creating a culture where voting becomes the norm for every household, every election — federal, state, local, every year. Voting empowers people to feel like they are making a difference and oftentimes is the stepping stone towards bigger forms of action– organizing, advocacy, policy.”

Texas Turnout is a nonpartisan 501(c)(3) organization that doesn’t endorse candidates or parties. But its work could have a significant impact on a close race in TX-15 if young people in the district turn out at a higher rate than they did in 2022. That year, Texans aged 18-29 voted for Democratic gubernatorial candidate Beto O’Rourke by a 16-point margin, according to exit polls. In 2020, Biden won an even larger share of the youth vote in Texas.