David W. Marshall

 When Donald Trump defeated Kamala Harris, he won by only 1.5 percentage points overall while receiving 312 electoral votes. Among Hispanic voters, Trump won 48% of the vote after losing to Joe Biden by a margin of 61% to 36% in the 2020 presidential election. In 2024, Trump won 15% of Black voters, up from 8% four years earlier. 

With the current gerrymandering fight, both political parties are positioning themselves for next year’s midterm elections. For Hispanic and Black voters who supported Trump in 2024, one question comes to mind: Are they getting what they expected from a second Trump term?

People are waking up, and they are not liking what they are seeing. As a result, constituents’ anger over ICE raids in their districts has become intense during town halls in congressional districts represented by both Democrats and Republicans. 

It was the central focus of questions at Wisconsin GOP Rep. Bryan Steil’s town hall in late July, as constituents attacked the congressman’s efforts to blame former President Biden’s policies for the country’s immigration problems. 

“What I see happening to our immigrant population embarrasses me, and you have not raised a voice to complain about it,” one attendee told Steil. “Where do I see your leadership? I see no leadership. I see following Trump 100% of the time.” 

The biggest crowd reaction of the night came in response to Steil’s introductory remarks celebrating border security, prompting an attendee to shout, “We are all immigrants.” 

In Virginia, Democratic Rep. Jennifer McClellan held a town hall intended to focus on issues affecting senior citizens, but frustrations over the Trump administration’s handling of immigration dominated the meeting, diverting it from topics such as Social Security and Medicaid. 

Among the only times McClellan drew applause was when she condemned the Trump administration’s handling of deportations and its use of “Alligator Alcatraz,” a migrant detention center in Florida that a federal judge has ordered closed. 

“I hope that when we enforce our immigration policy — whether it’s who we detain, who we deport — that we do so consistent with American values of due process and compassion,” McClellan said. 

Many people agree with McClellan concerning due process and compassion from a moral perspective, but due process and compassion from government often get lost in partisan politics. The same is true with fair elections, checks and balances, and holding elected leaders accountable. How would MAGA Republicans respond if Barack Obama used the same authoritarian tactics we see used by Trump? 

The nation’s democracy is shaky, but it still exists despite gerrymandering in Texas and California. Ironically, with all of the anger over ICE activities and deportation, Republicans are counting on increased support from Hispanic voters to win five newly redrawn congressional districts. Republicans specifically increased the share of Hispanic voters in three of the five targeted districts, capitalizing on recent political shifts to the right among Hispanic voters in South Texas and urban areas like Houston and San Antonio. Will Republicans be able to hold onto those gains, given the backlash GOP congressional lawmakers are receiving? 

A July national poll by Equis Research found that one-third of Hispanic voters who backed Biden in 2020 and then Trump in 2024 are planning to vote for a Democratic congressional candidate. Another one-third of these voters are undecided. 

The gerrymandered district in Texas comes from a direct request from Trump, whom Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker called a “wannabe dictator.” In a democracy, every citizen has basic rights that the government should not take away. Free elections through a fair system of representation are among those rights, which gerrymandering undermines. 

Trump is targeting political opponents, purging top generals from the military, imposing his will over the arts, installing loyalists to dismantle the federal bureaucracy, and taking power from Congress while expecting the Supreme Court to also fall in line. Because the U.S. Constitution is not partisan, Republicans and Democrats who have protested Trump’s policies should also be protesting Trump’s authoritarianism. 

The writer is the author of “God Bless Our Divided America.”