Republicans and Democrats both wanted the ‘Latino vote’ in the midterms. Here’s what actually happened.

WASHINGTON – Both Republicans and Democrats were hoping Latino voters would help push them to victory this election.

And in some cases, both parties were right.

As the parties vied for the “Latino vote,” the 2022 midterm election results show that electorate isn’t an easy one to capture. If they want those votes in future contests, Republicans and Democrats are going to have to reevaluate how they appeal to Latino voters.

Overall, Democrats' hold on the Latino community is slightly shrinking, according to exit polls. However, Latino voters helped Democrats secure key seats in South Texas, Nevada and Arizona. But the Republican Party is also investing in the coveted voting bloc, resulting in some gains across the country, including in South Florida.

Clarissa Martinez De Castro, vice president of the Latino Vote Initiative at UnidosUS, a Latino advocacy organization, said the election results should be a “wake up call” to both parties, noting that Republicans were able win with some Latino voters because of concern over the economy.

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However, she warned that those gains may not stay because Latinos have traditionally aligned with Democratic positions on key policy areas such as health care, gun control and immigration.

“I would say that at the current moment, both parties are below peak levels of support they've been able to achieve from Hispanic voters,” Martinez De Castro said.

See who won: Here are the 2022 midterm election results

Latinos helped win key races

Democrats were able to secure key Democratic wins due to Latino voters.

In Nevada, Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, the only Latina senator in Congress, was reelected after a tight race against Republican Adam Laxalt. Cortez Masto’s win helped Democrats retaincontrol in the Senate.

Leading up to the election, it was clear that Cortez Masto would need Latino voters to win. About 20 percent of the midterm voter electorate in Nevada is Latino, and some analysts said Cortez Masto would need at least two thirds of that vote to be reelected.

Cortez Masto captured 62 percent of the Latino vote, according to NBC exit polls.

In Arizona, Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly won reelection against Republican Blake Masters. According to exit polls, more than half (58 percent) of Latino voters in the state voted for Kelly. That's several points better than Kelly's 51.4 percent of the overall vote.

“The midterm election results in Arizona, Nevada, and Pennsylvania–as well as in key competitive congressional districts in South Texas and North Carolina–are a testament to the power of Latino voters and their ongoing support for Democrats,” Voto Latino President and CEO Maria Teresa Kumar said in a statement.

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A not-so-red wave in South Texas

But in some places, appeals to Latino voters didn't yield the desired results.

Republicans tried to expand on gains following the 2020 election in South Texas, where then-President Donald Trump shrunk Democrats' lead in the region by more than half.

The GOP invested heavily in three Republican congressional candidates, Mayra Flores, Cassy Garcia and Monica De La Cruz, hoping the three Latina women could flip three South Texas districts. The three districts, Texas's 34th, 28th and 15th congressional district, are majority Latino.

But only one candidate out of three, De La Cruz, won. De La Cruz won Texas's 15th congressional district, which had undergone redistricting ahead of the election, and is the first Republican to represent the district.

Flores made history earlier this year after she became the first Mexican-born woman to be elected to the House of Representatives. She was first elected in a special election in June, where she flipped the seat from Democrat to Republican.

Kenny Sandoval, vice president of campaigns and partnerships at Voto Latino, said Republicans were unable to flip all seats in the region because they weren’t talking about the main policies that are important to Latino voters, such as abortion, the economy and inflation.

“They're investing heavily in our communities, but they're not aligning with our issues,” Sandoval said, adding that he believes the midterm results will not deter the Republican Party from continuing to invest in the region.

Jobs and immigration were among the top issues that the three Republican candidates in South Texas discussed on the campaign trail, while also incorporating much of their religious views.

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Redistricting also played a role in De La Cruz’s victory, said Thomas Saenz, president and general counsel for Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF), a civil rights nonprofit.

Texas' 15th ongressional District underwent redistricting, incorporating more rural counties. De La Cruz did better in the rural counties with more white voters, while her competitor, progressive Democrat Michelle Vallejo, won in the counties with a higher Latino population.

For example, De La Cruz lost in Hidalgo and Brooks counties, both of which are more than 90 percent Latino, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. But De La Cruz won by a landslide in Wilson and Guadalupe counties, which are 41 percent and 39 percent Hispanic respectively.

Saenz said the redistricting map in Texas remains under litigation and could possibly change for future elections.

“The lines that you saw used in this election for state House, state Senate and Congress may not be the lines that are used in future elections,” he said.

Republicans solidifying hold on South Florida

For the past several elections, the Democratic Party has been losing its grip on South Florida, where there is a heavy Cuban American population, as well as growing Venezuelan American and Nicaraguan American communities.

Miami-Dade County, the largest in the region and a typical Democratic stronghold, shifted right as Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis won the county. DeSantis is the first GOP official to win in Miami-Dade since 2002.

Sandoval noted the shift isn’t just happening with Latinos.

“The electorate in Florida has shifted as a whole to the right,” Sandoval said.

DeSantis won Florida by roughly 19 percentage points over his Democratic challenger Charlie Crist, 59.4 percent to 40 percent. Among Latinos, 58 percent supported DeSantis throughout the state, according to exit polls.

Throughout the election, DeSantis focused largely on the economy and rising prices. Annual inflation is at 7.7%, slightly down from previous months. However, food, shelter and energy costs remain high. Voters in the state, including Latinos, responded to the message.

“We’ve been on the ground in Miami every single day for 11 months and the signs were all there — this is the GOP’s 10-year strategy coming to fruition,” Devon Murphy-Anderson, co-founder of Mi Vecino, a Florida-based Latino voter mobilization group, said in a statement last week, according to the Tallahassee Democrat.

However, Sandoval said more Latinos are voting for Republicans due to party rhetoric, such as calling Democrats socialist.

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Many Cuban Americans and their families came to the United States after the communist revolution in Cuba. Some Republican candidates have tried to latch on to those fears.

“They've done a lot of work on convincing Florida Latinos that Democrats are the communists…and this has a negative impact on support for Democratic policies across the board," Sandoval said.

Both Democrats and Republicans, however, can’t rely on just a single issue to capture Latino voters, Martinez De Castro said.

“Any attempt to try to put us in an either-or-box tends to miss very important points and lead to mistaken assumptions,” Martinez De Castro said.

Reach Rebecca Morin at Twitter @RebeccaMorin_

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Latino voters and the 2022 midterm elections: What happened and why