Latinos who turned away from Trump but distrust the Democrats: ‘I need to see deeds to believe again’

The last two years have been, she says, “an emotional roller coaster.” She voted for Donald Trump for president, immigration authorities took away her husband, she was left alone to run the freight trucking business and care for their three children, and she watched her life plans slowly slip through her fingers. Now there are exactly 20 days left until the U.S. midterm elections and no campaign promise—neither from the Republicans nor the Democrats—has convinced Jessica Ruiz about the need to get up on November 3, drive through the streets of Miami and go to the polling place for Florida’s 28th District.On the ballot for her seat in the House of Representatives will be Republican Carlos A. Giménez, who promises tax cuts and job incentives; Democrat Phil Ehr, who says he will lower health insurance premiums and fight for housing; and the independent Eddy Rojas, who aims to protect Medicare and reduce the cost of living. But none of these candidates, nor their platforms, mean anything specific to Ruiz.“I don’t feel represented by either party,” the Cuban-American woman says. “After what we’ve been through, I need to see deeds and commitments fulfilled before I can believe again.”Those months were awful for Ruiz while her husband, Antonio Lopetegui, remained locked in the makeshift tents at the Alligator Alcatraz detention center. Business sales declined; customers were reluctant to trust her—a woman—with the vegetable containers they shipped weekly from California to Miami. And the children asked why their father wasn’t there on their first day of school, or why he no longer took them to get haircuts. Lopetegui returned home a little more than a year ago, resumed the business and his duties as a father, but the mark that detention left on Ruiz’s life is irreversible. It transformed her completely.If two years ago she was a Republican voter, she is not now. If before she worried mainly about the course of the national economy, she no longer sees the possibility of prosperity without first having peace of mind. “Today I feel disappointment. I voted with hope, but what we’ve experienced as a family has changed how I feel about that decision,” she says. She still has no idea what she will do in November, whether she will vote and, if so, for whom.Ruiz is not the only Latina who, after feeling betrayed by Trump despite voting for him two years ago, has drifted away and become part of a group that neither party has yet won over. A recent study by UnidosUS, an advocacy and civil rights organization in the United States, revealed that nearly four in 10 Hispanic voters belong to what it calls the “moveable middle,” a bloc that represents 38% of the Hispanic electorate and remains undecided ahead of the midterms. Of that same voter group, 46% would not support him if they had to do it over again.They are not a group either party can afford to lose. They are a bloc within an electorate of about 39 million people that will carry significant weight in the upcoming contest. “Latinos are now the new swing state,” says Frankie Miranda, president and CEO of the Hispanic Federation. “Latinos are demanding answers to the questions they have about their specific problems and also about how broken promises will be resolved. It is predicted that, once again, they will have the power to decide who controls Congress in January.”Immigration, an economic problemAccording to UnidosUS’s analysis, if anything worries this group of undecided Hispanic voters today it is the economy—how much the cost of living has risen. Second in line are concerns like jobs and wages, followed by the cost of health care, then housing costs and, fifth, the need for immigration reform.Some have wondered how, in a community particularly besieged by arrests and deportations carried out by the Department of Homeland Security during this period, Latino voters still prioritize the economy over the fear stirred by the anti-immigrant crackdown. Delmarie Alicea, an attorney with LatinoJustice PRLDEF, says this shows that immigration is also an economic issue.“Policies that affect immigrant workers can also impact labor availability, transportation costs and, ultimately, many families’ wallets,” she says. “Voters want the government to address both their economic security and their rights, dignity and family stability.”Niover Licea has seen—and suffered—this in the past two years. He brought much of his family to the United States in 2024 through the humanitarian parole program the Biden administration extended to Cubans. Once the Trump presidency dismantled those benefits, not only did his father return to the island amid all the uncertainty there, but his sister-in-law and brother have not had their work permits renewed. He now bears much of the burden for the family’s financial support.“I have a big responsibility toward them,” he says over the phone. “Since I decided to bring them here through humanitarian parole, I am financially responsible for them.”He is also manager of a services company in North Carolina, where he has spent two months trying to find three employees to cover night shifts. “It’s very hard for me to find workers—many people have been repatriated, gone into hiding or moved away. And wages right now are not enough,” he says.In November 2024, Licea, 51, was convinced that his vote for Donald Trump was a gain. North Carolina, then a swing state, ultimately gave the Republican 51.0% of the vote versus Kamala Harris’s 47.7%. But nearly two years later, Licea does not hesitate to say everything has been “very disappointing.”“It was none of what we expected or what it could have been economically,” he says. Sometimes his partner, who is a Democrat, reminds him that all that has happened in the last two years is not something Trump did not openly anticipate—he promised in his campaigns to carry out the largest deportation in the country’s history. “But we didn’t imagine it would be like this,” he says. “This has affected the Latino family a lot. The conservative right has overlooked the fact that the Hispanic voter has power.”Licea now “questions” whether he is still a Republican voter, although that “doesn’t mean he’s a Democrat.” “I’ve seen people take advantage of both parties; there is total corruption in the governing ecosystem. I am extremely disappointed—I am not ashamed to say I was wrong,” he says.Voter skepticismDistrust or a lack of political faith keeps many voters in a limbo of skepticism. UnidosUS’s study notes that only 64% of undecided Hispanics say they are sure or very likely to vote in the upcoming elections—a contest that could determine the balance of the federal government for the next two years.However, for both Ruiz and Licea this discontent has not outweighed their desire to see some kind of change from the current administration.“I understand that voting is a way to make my voice heard,” Ruiz says. That is why she will weigh her decision between now and November. “I would like to have confidence that something can change. I worry that other people will continue living with the uncertainty and fear we know so well. I would look for a party that listens to families’ concerns and offers real solutions.”Licea is among those who think things “can still be fixed.” He is sure Trump will lose the elections because his administration, he says, “has focused on the ultra-rich, inflation is rampant, prices are not falling and he has picked fights on behalf of all Americans.” And if a Democratic vote changes the situation “for thousands affected by the current policies,” he says he would vote for them “out of conscience.” “I would do it, even if I don’t identify with them,” he adds.A portion of this electorate has so far chosen not to go to the polls because they think nothing will solve the urgent situations they face now. Alicea, of LatinoJustice, agrees that no election “solves all problems immediately,” but every vote, she says, “helps determine who makes decisions and who they listen to.”“These elections matter because officeholders make decisions that affect the economy, housing, education, civil rights and communities’ ability to participate in our democracy,” the attorney says. “Voting lets people express whether they agree with those decisions and what direction they want for the future.”Sign up for our weekly newsletter to get more English-language news coverage from EL PAÍS USA Edition