Roughly 50 Latinos serve in the current Congress and, come January, that number will slightly increase, but it falls short of the big projections for pick-ups that Democrats and Republicans had anticipated.
The midterm elections were a missed opportunity for overall Latino representation on Capitol Hill given that 91 Latino and Hispanic candidates were vying for House and Senate seats. Of the 91 who were on the November ballot, 49 prevailed across both parties, and most were Democrats.
That’s a slight improvement from the current Congress, in which 46 Hispanic candidates were sworn into office in January 2021, according to a tally by the Pew Research Center.
Republicans fielded a record number of Hispanic candidates for the 2022 midterm elections and were optimistic a projected GOP red wave would be led by Latina Republicans. Instead, Republicans barely won the House, and marquee candidates in swing districts failed to pull out victories.
One-third of GOP midterm candidates won compared to two-thirds of Democrats.
For Republicans, 23 of its 34 Republican House candidates lost. Five of its 11 winners were newcomers, while the rest were incumbents. Across the aisle, 35 of the 53 Democratic House candidates were victorious, including nine new faces.
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Among the Democratic winners were Greg Casar, a 33-year-old former Austin city councilman who campaigned alongside Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) on a liberal platform of “Medicare for all” and fighting income inequality.
Outside New York City, Republican Latino George Santos defeated Democrat Robert Zimmerman. It is the first known congressional race in which both candidates were openly gay.
Mike Madrid, a Republican strategist who tracks trends in Latino voting, said part of the issue for both parties was redistricting. In Nevada, Madrid said, one district with 80% Hispanic voters was broken down into three districts, and Hispanic voters were evenly distributed across them, likely hurting a Hispanic candidate’s chances of winning in any of those three districts.
Wadi Gaitan, spokesman for the LIBRE Initiative organization that helps conservative Latinos run for office, said the results were not a “reflection of the country not being ready for Hispanic candidates” but rather partly the result of redistricting that scattered Hispanic populations that had previously been confined to one district.
“I don’t think there’s one clear answer in the sense that every state and every district is different. People face different outcomes for different reasons,” Gaitan said in a phone call. “To say that this was bad for Hispanics or Mayra Flores — that she lost. The fact that she competed, the fact that she rose where she did, the fact that people crossed to her can be celebrated.”
Flores’s loss was dramatic because she won a special election for the seat in June, and Republicans had touted her brand of politics as the new playbook for South Texas. The former insurance agent was Hidalgo County GOP Hispanic Outreach chairwoman and the wife of a Border Patrol agent. Her campaign focused heavily on border security and immigration, but she was unable to beat Rep. Vicente Gonzalez, an incumbent who left his previous district to run in the neighboring one. Flores did not respond to a request for comment.
Gaitan noted that some of this year’s winners lost their first run in 2020 and that many of the Republican candidates this year were first-timers and could return in 2024 with better odds of winning.
Monica De La Cruz was one example of a second-try winner. Due to redistricting, Texas’s 15th Congressional District on the southern border was more favorable to Republicans than Democrats.
Another example of a second-try winner is Anna Paulina Luna, who was unsuccessful as the Republican nominee in 2020 but won this year. The former model and Air Force veteran worked for Charlie Kirk’s Turning Point USA before running for office this year.
Latino is defined in this story as a person whose family is from a Spanish-speaking or Portuguese-speaking country, whereas Hispanic is used to refer to people whose family is from Spanish countries. The overall number of Hispanic members of Congress has varied slightly by organizations tracking such trends based on definitions of who to include, such as nonvoting delegates from U.S. territories and whether the timing of the count begins at the start of the congressional session.
Here’s a look at the candidates on the November ballot based on lists from the Democratic and Republican parties and how they fared.
HISPANIC REPUBLICANS
WON: 11 of 34 House candidates (* denotes newcomer)
Lori Chavez-DeRemer, Oregon 5th*
Juan Ciscomani, Arizona 6th *
Monica De La Cruz, Texas 15th *
Mario Diaz-Balart, Florida 26th
Maria Elvira Salazar, Florida 27th
Mike Garcia, California 27th
Carlos Gimenez, Florida 28th
Tony Gonzales, Texas 23rd
Nicole Malliotakis, New York 11th
Anna Paulina Luna, Florida 13th *
George Santos, New York 3rd *
LOST: 23 of 34
Irene Armendariz-Jackson, Texas 16th *
Marcos Arroyo, New Jersey 8th *
Jonathan Chavez, Georgia 4th *
Chris Gonzales, California 46th *
Mayra Flores, Texas 34th
Cassy Garcia, Texas 28th *
Michelle Garcia Holmes, New Mexico 1st *
Mark Gonsalves, Georgia 7th *
Caesar Gonzales, Georgia 13th *
Peter Hernandez, California 18th *
Catalina Lauf, Illinois 11th *
George Logan, Connecticut 5th *
Dan Martinez, California 31st *
Alexis Martinez Johnson, New Mexico 3rd *
Carmen Montiel, Texas 18th *
Yuripzy Morgan, Maryland 3rd *
Jesus Navarro, Florida 24th *
Omar Navarro, California 43rd *
Juan Pagan, New York 7th *
Luis Pozzolo, Arizona 7th *
Jenny Garcia Sharon, Texas 37th *
Anthony Swad, Texas 32nd *
Yesli Vega, Virginia 7th *
HISPANIC DEMOCRATS
WON: 35 of 53 House candidates (* denotes newcomer)
Pete Aguilar, California 33rd
Nanette Barragan, California 44th
Yadira Caraveo, Colorado 8th *
Salud Carbajal, California 24th
Tony Cardenas, California 29th
Greg Casar, Texas 35th *
Joaquin Castro, Texas 20th
Lou Correa, California 46th
Henry Cuellar, Texas 28th
Veronica Escobar, Texas 16th
Adriano Espaillat, New York 13th
Maxwell Alejandro Frost, Florida 10th *
Ruben Gallego, Arizona 3rd
Jesus “Chuy” Garcia, Illinois 4th
Robert Garcia, California 42nd *
Sylvia Garcia, Texas 29th
Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, Washington 3rd *
Jimmy Gomez, California 34th
Vicente Gonzalez, Texas 34th
Raul Grijalva, Arizona 7th
Teresa Leger Fernandez, New Mexico 3rd
Mike Levin, California 49th
Rob Menendez, New Jersey 8th *
Grace Napolitano, California 31st
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, New York 14th
Delia Ramirez, Illinois 3rd *
Raul Ruiz, California 25th
Andrea Salinas, Oregon 6th *
Linda Sanchez, California 38th
Darren Soto, Florida 9th
Norma Torres, California 35th
Ritchie Torres, New York 15th
Juan Vargas, California 52nd
Gabe Vasquez, New Mexico 2nd *
Nydia Velazquez, New York 7th
LOST: 18 of 53
Joseph Alfonso, Michigan 4th *
Robert Asencio, Florida 28th *
Shamaine Daniels, Pennsylvania 10th *
Antonio Daza, Georgia 11th *
Angelica Duenas, California 29th *
David Canepa, California 15th *
Bob Hernandez, Kansas 4th *
John Lira, Texas 23rd *
Rosalinda “Linda” Nuno, Texas 10th *
Maclovio Perez, Texas 27th *
Javier Garcia Ramos, Arizona 5th *
Corinna Balderramos Robinson, Florida 21st *
Rudy Salas, California 22nd *
Annette Taddeo, Florida 27th *
David Torres, Colorado 5th *
Michelle Vallejo, Texas 15th *
Tony Vargas, Nebraska 2nd *
Claudia Zapata, Texas 21st *
Senate Republican candidates on the ballot (* denotes new candidate)
Loser: Leora Levy, Connecticut *
Winner: Marco Rubio, Florida
Senate Democratic candidates on the ballot
Winner: Catherine Cortez Masto, Nevada
Winner: Alex Padilla, California
