New Poll Shows Talarico and Hinojosa
with Big Leads Among Hispanic Voters
Capitol Inside
April 24, 2026
A new poll found Austin State Rep. James Talarico leading U.S. Senator John Cornyn by two dozen points among Hispanic voters in Texas where hometown colleague Gina Hinojosa enjoyed a 19-point advantage over Governor Greg Abbott with the critical Latino electorate here.
Conducted by the Latino organization Somos Votantes and the Global Strategy Group, the poll that was released on Thursday showed Hinojosa favored by 58 percent of the likely Hispanic voters who were surveyed compared to 39 percent for the incumbent Republican who's seeking a record-setting fourth term in 2026.
Talarico, the Democrats' nominee at the top of the Texas ticket, led Cornyn 57 percent to 33 percent among the Hispanic voters in the Somos Votantes sample. Tejano music star Bobby Pulido led Republican U.S. Rep. Monica De La Cruz by 2 points among Hispanics who participated in the survey with 51 percent support in that critical voting bloc in the fight for the Congressional District 15 seat in South Texas. .
Democratic U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar was up by only 1 point over Webb County Judge Tano Tijerina among the Hispanic votes in the poll from Congressional District 28. Cuellar led Tijerina 40 percent to 39 percent in the Somo Votantes survey. The CD 35 is one of five Texas districts that GOP leaders and lawmakers in Austin targeted for takeovers on a map that they redesigned last year on orders from President Donald Trump.
The race for another seat the Republicans redrew for themselves - Congressional District 35 - was the only Texas contest that was tested in the Somos Votantes poll with a Republican receiving more support than the Democratic opposition in the general election in November. Fifty-four percent of the Hispanic voters in CD 35 favored Republican Carlos De La Cruz compared to a hypothetical Democrat with 54 percent support to 39 percent.
Democrats Maureen Galindo and Johnny C. Garcia are competing in the May 26 runoff election for the nomination in an open CD 35 race. De La Cruz is the CD 15 incumbent's brother - and he scored President Donald Trump's endorsement for the primary. But De La Cruz trailed State Rep. John Lujan of San Antonio in the March primary election by 6 percentage points. So the findings for CD 35 may not be as telling as those in the other Texas races that were tested in the new poll.
The Somo Votantes survey effectively echoed what polls of the electorate nationwide have shown in recent months - that Trump's support among Hispanic voters has plunged since he scored record support from that rapidly-growing bloc in 2024. The Republican-controlled Texas Legislature based its projections for the new congressional map on the levels of support Trump garnered in the general election in 2024.
Most of the prominent national election prognosticators have CD 35 in Texas rated likely Republican. Two other seats that Democrats currently control are ranked as solid Republican while a fourth is a toss up and a fifth - CD 28 - widely viewed as leaning in the Democrats' favor with Cuellar as the consensus favorite.
Somo Votantes polled 1,600 Hispanic voters in eight states
- Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, New Mexico, Nevada, Texas and Wisconsin - over the course of a week that ended in early April.
The group's founder and president, Melissa Morales, warned that Democrats have no guarantees that the support will hold for the next six months.
"Although our polling shows that Republicans and Trump are facing a strong backlash due to economic anxiety fueled by tariffs and the cost of the war in Iran, Democrats don’t have a guaranteed victory either," Morales said. "The reality is that both sides have a lot of work to do; and while Republicans face a massive trust deficit, Democrats must still prove they can address government waste and safety without disconnecting from the economic reality of Latino families. In this cycle, the Latino vote is not a given – it must be earned with real solutions.”
The poll found that three out of every four Hispanic voters are worried about inflation while 81 percent are concerned about rising prices at the gasoline pump. Trump was 16 points under water in the Somos Votantes poll found Trump underwater in terms of personal favorability and job approval. But only 37 percent approved of his handling of the economy - the number one issue on the minds of Hispanic voters in the swing states.
more to come ...
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