By Emma Weidmann | Editor-in-Chief
WASHINGTON, D.C. — What had seemed like a neck-and-neck race according to some polls wasn’t much of a nail-biter after all. More than 6 million Texans voted for President Donald Trump in November, putting a 14% margin between the once former, now current president and Kamala Harris. Many of those voters made the journey to D.C. for inauguration day, hoping to glimpse the new commander-in-chief up close.
Trump captured the state in the past three elections, never loosening his grip by much. For many Texans, this has to do with his straight-shooting attitude. It’s the kind of no-B.S. practicality that Texans like Anthony LaScala of Fort Worth have come to appreciate.
“Haven’t you had it up with a guy who smiles and waves at you, or the robot?” LaScala said.
But, it also comes down to policy. Trump won the state across border security and economic lines on top of his perceived toughness on some cultural issues like “wokeness,” a return to conservative values and more.
LaScala, a parent and business owner, said high prices were a factor in his decision at the polls in November.
“I got four kids,” LaScala said. “Unbelievable prices of everything — inflation. I own a restaurant, absolutely skyrocketed all the prices. That’s what [Biden] did to us, to everybody. Owning a restaurant, I know what everybody else had to pay. We had to pay to raise the prices for everybody else to pay. It was horrible.”
Louis Girard, who lives in Schulenburg, which is between San Antonio and Houston, said the economy was a top issue for him.
“You’re putting fuel in your car, you’re putting bread on your table, you’re feeding your animals,” Girard said. “All that has increased in this past administration.”
Jeff Wood of Fort Worth said he approves of Trump’s unfavorable attitude towards “equity” and believes a second Trump administration will be good for meritocracy. A successful four years of Trump would mean reducing the deficit and the size of the government, Wood said.
“The military and government [should be] merit based, not equity based,” Wood said. “Equity based is racist.”
A survey by the University of Houston found that a majority of Texans in San Antonio, Houston and Dallas support Republican approaches to border control over former president Biden’s handling of the border. In line with those findings, Girard said he is unsatisfied with the previous administration’s immigration policies.
“They should come through the proper way, being vetted and go through the system, not just illegally come through,” Girard said. “As an American, you cannot go to another country illegally. You have to go through their way that they want you to go through. So [immigrants] should do the same thing.”
Rep. Pete Sessions of Texas’ 17th Congressional District said rule of law on the border is what Texans want, and that his and Trump’s goal is to see all illegal immigrants deported.
“The law was openly broken,” Sessions said. “There were people who came here in full violation of the law. Rule of law is the guiding principle we’ve got. If we need to, we’ll change the law…We know these drug cartels, we already know how they operate. They put these kids into slavery. They own them. The whole thing is an abomination. No, you don’t reward any system or any group of people when you do things that are such a gross violation of human rights.”
