Latino voters helped bring Trump back to the White House. What is their next action?

CASA GRANDE, Ariz. (AP) — Chris Martinez feels like Donald Trump made fun of him.

The 28-year-old maintenance technician from Casa Grande, Arizona, voted for the Republican president hoping for a thriving economy and no wars.

Instead, gas prices are so high that Martinez surrendered one of his vehicles to the lender, he shifted his grocery shopping to a discount grocer, and he watched the United States spend months in conflict with Iran.

“He doesn’t do anything for us, to benefit us,” Martinez said. “And it sucks because I got screwed and I feel like an idiot.”

As a group, Latinos turned to Trump two years ago, contributing to his return to the White House with a Republican-controlled Congress. Today, many, like Martinez, are attacking the president and his party, which could upset the balance of power in Washington during the November 3 elections.

“I went to the right for a while, but I’m back to the middle,” Martinez said.

The path to a majority in the U.S. House of Representatives runs through majority-Latino districts in states like Arizona, Colorado and Texas, where Democrats are counting on disaffected Trump supporters to swing back their way. It’s unclear, however, whether Democrats made the deal with voters who have no strong allegiance to either party.

Martinez, for his part, isn’t sure he’ll vote in the midterms.

An Arizona farm town faces a transition

Casa Grande, the town of 70,000 where Martinez lives, sits at an intersection between Phoenix and Tucson, an hour’s drive from each. There is a quaint downtown area surrounded by planned developments providing affordable housing for people excluded from larger cities. Gated golf course communities attract retirees.

Much of the city is located at the northern tip of Arizona’s 6th congressional district, historically one of the closest in the country. Republican Juan Ciscomani is seeking a third term. Two years ago, Ciscomani won by 2.5 percentage points and Trump by less than a point.

This time, Ciscomani subtly creates distance from Trump without directly criticizing the president or his policies. The congressman talks about his immigrant story — he was born in Mexico and moved to the United States as a child — and presents himself as independent and bipartisan.

WATCH: Trump speaks at rallies in Arizona and Montana on Day 2 of Western campaign

“I’m not a rubber stamp for anyone,” he says in one ad.

If Ciscomani keeps his seat, it will be because of people like Chris Durant, 61, who voted Republican in the last election and will likely do so again next month.

“We really don’t worry about gas and prices and stuff,” Durant said as he and his wife loaded their van with groceries for his mother-in-law.

Ciscomani’s Democratic opponent is JoAnna Mendoza. The former Marine emphasizes her own difficult upbringing as the daughter of immigrant farmworkers who worked the fields near Casa Grande.

“People trust you if they know you’re from the community and understand their way of life,” Mendoza said in an interview earlier this year.

Most Hispanic voters disapprove of Trump

Trump made large gains among Hispanics in the 2024 campaign that returned him to the White House.

At the time, about seven in 10 Hispanic voters were “very concerned” about the cost of food and groceries, or just over two-thirds of all voters, according to AP VoteCast, a survey of more than 120,000 voters nationwide. Trump had a clear advantage among these voters.

Today, about 6 in 10 Hispanic voters disapprove of Trump’s handling of the presidency, according to an Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll from October. More than 7 in 10 people disapprove of his performance on the economy.

An AP-NORC poll in September showed that Hispanic voters are more concerned than voters overall about the cost of groceries and housing, and 70% of them blame Trump’s policies more than factors beyond his control for rising prices.

READ MORE: High Prices Test Latino Voter Loyalties in Key Battleground District

Their possible shift away from Republicans this year would be driven by anti-Trump sentiment and not a love of Democrats, said Mike Madrid, a political consultant who wrote “The Latino Century,” a book about Latino voters, and co-hosts “The Latino Vote” podcast.

Latinos are in the midst of a “disalignment,” rejecting strong associations with both parties because neither effectively addresses the economic concerns of the working class, he said.

“The Latino electorate is transitioning from a racial and ethnic voting bloc to an economic, pocketbook and class voter,” Madrid said. “And the party that understands this first is the one that will likely dominate the next generation.”

Hispanics are about evenly split on their opinion of the Democratic Party, according to the October AP-NORC poll. Their views of the Republican Party are more negative, with 55% having an unfavorable view and 38% a favorable view.

The economy is at the center of a competition in Colorado

Recently in Denver, Democratic Rep. Manny Rutinel stood before a crowd of union carpenters and rolled up his sleeve to show a scar. The mark dates from when he sold his blood over 100 times to make ends meet.

“I’m the son of a single mother. She came to America to give me the American dream. We worked hard for this country,” Rutinel told the raucous crowd who gathered to campaign for him in one of the nation’s most-watched races.

Rutinel is challenging Republican Rep. Gabe Evans in Colorado’s 8th Congressional District, which stretches from Denver’s working-class suburbs to energy-rich farms and ranches in the northern part of the state. Latinos make up the district’s largest ethnic group, and both the incumbent and his challenger are Hispanic. Evans won by less than 1 percentage point while Trump won by 2 points.

Rutinel has focused relentlessly on the economy since winning the nomination.

“People in the neighborhood feel like they’ve been lied to and betrayed,” he said in an interview.

WATCH: GOP’s big bet on Texas Latino voters could backfire in midterms

Evans, a 40-year-old former police lieutenant, described Rutinel as having a background as a left-wing activist and liberal lawmaker.

“Go ask any Hispanic in the district: Do you think we should secure the border? Do you think we should get rid of the bad guys? Do you think we should help the good guys? They’ll say yes,” Evans, whose grandfather was a Mexican immigrant, said in an interview.

Jose Montalvo, a 47-year-old truck driver, voted for Evans even though he supported Democrat Kamala Harris for president in 2024. He likes to split his position across party lines but doesn’t think he will this year after having to change insurers and cell phone providers to save money.

Montalvo is frustrated with Trump’s handling of gas prices, saying, “I blame him for the fuel side of things.” This is a criticism he addresses to all Republicans.

Maria del Carmen Rojas, a naturalized citizen who has lived in the United States for 36 years, said she was shocked that Latinos could support Trump and a modern Republican Party that she said routinely denigrates immigrants.

She has four children who are American citizens, including a son who served in the war in Afghanistan. She spent her life working in factories and serving as a nanny to raise her children. Now she has difficulty shopping.

“We Latinos contribute a lot to this country, with the taxes we pay, the services we provide,” she said.

Frustration mounts in Texas’ Rio Grande Valley

A wooden sign that said “Need Prayer?” sitting on a table with free Bibles along a busy suburban walking path in Edinburg, Texas, on a warm October evening.

The city is part of the state’s 15th Congressional District, which Trump won by 18 percentage points but is now considered one of the key battlegrounds on Election Day.

Standing behind the table, Thomas Centrella, 42, said he had become disillusioned with politics and found himself fast-forwarding through campaign ads. Although he tends to vote Republican, he may not do so in the future.

During Trump’s first term, Centrella said, “I feel like he was going in the right direction, but I think now it’s gotten weird.” » He doubts he will ever vote for a Democrat, but has said he might skip the election or become an independent in the future.

Maria Elsa Gonzalez, who is retired, said she would again support the district’s Republican Rep. Monica de la Cruz over Democrat Bobby Pulido, a Tejano music star. Speaking in Spanish, Gonzalez said Pulido “has no preparation other than a pretty face and the fame of singing beautifully.”

Priscilla Olivarez, 46, a public education teacher who was walking the trail, is undecided at midterm. She grew up a Democrat and voted Republican in the last presidential election. Today, she’s disillusioned with an economy where costs seem to be rising faster than wages, and she often dips into her own pocket to pay for classroom expenses.

“I’m independent right now because I don’t agree with either side right now,” she said.

Riccardi reported from Denver and Gonzalez from Edinburg, Texas.