For a law that was supposed to trample minority voting rights, Texas minority candidates did rather well in the Texas primary.

It is a constant seen in the media cycles. Hysterical claims are made for a lengthy period, and as those get proven out by data or by direct evidence — by reality — the hysterics evaporate and so does the story. There is no flood of follow-up pieces on par with the tsunami of dire consequences in articles and columns. The journos simply move on to the next promised nefarious event. This is now playing out regarding the voting rights said to have been trampled in recent months.

Expect this to next not play out in Texas, where they recently staged primary elections. Beto O’Rourke won the Democrat nomination for the governor’s race in a landslide. Debate still rages over his Latino bona fides, but his win would seem to indicate the press insisting on his Hispanic roots makes this a Hispanic win, correct? The next question would be, how did this happen in the state where new voting laws were promised to all but eliminate the voices of the smaller demographics?

The media find themselves in a tangle, and this is partly why they are not trumpeting the results from that state in the usual fashion. Normally, the press loves to herald the times POC candidates win elections, but as we have been learning in recent years, those victories do not count when the Republicans are the ones supporting minority candidates. All we need to do is flashback to the last elections in Virginia, where a female POC was selected as Lieutenant Governor, and the first Hispanic was chosen as Attorney General. All we heard was how racist Virginia voters were for selecting Glenn Younkin over the translucent Terry McAuliffe.

The Texas primary shows a couple of results that the press has little interest in addressing. In no fewer than three primary races for the House, we see Hispanic names rising to the top, and more were found in the state races, such as Janie Lopez in House District 37. These are good signs of minority emergence continuing in the elections, but it is a bad sign for media messaging, so the reporting on this becomes notably muted. 

Why? Well just consider what the running narrative has been for the past year, and longer. Recall, states that were inserting voting integrity laws were said to be trampling on voters’ rights, doing so in a racist fashion in order to squelch the voice of minority voters. Having these minority candidates winning defies that prior script that was followed. Then there is another facet that derails those prior claims – many of these Latino victories took place in the Republican primaries.

After last night, Republicans likely have a full slate of Latinas contesting three Rio Grande Valley seats: #TX15 Monica De La Cruz#TX28 Cassy Garcia (pending runoff)#TX34 Mayra Flores

Rs already favored in #TX15, but all three could be in play in a total Dem collapse.

— Dave Wasserman (@Redistrict) March 2, 2022

What the press cannot explain and/or refuses to address is how supposedly racist legislation meant to bolster the alleged white stranglehold on political offices led to an influx of Hispanic victories. Moreover, how did those minority triumphs occur under the banner of the party allegedly enacting laws and redrawing districts specifically designed to disenfranchise minority voters? It is a twofold contradiction to the promised intolerant design of things, and the press cannot run away from this fast enough.

The overarching issue is one the Democratic Party and press complex turn an oblivious eye towards – the shifting electoral demographics. Over the course of a few elections, we have seen a growing trend of black and Hispanic voters moving to the GOP, either in registration or just in vote support. The party appears in denial. 

We have seen Dems attributing these shifts to outlier influences in select pockets, despite national trends saying otherwise. The Democrats have continued to push the use of the term “LatinX” in a woke nod to activists despite Hispanics saying in large numbers they resent the usage, and it could influence their decision on candidates. 

What we are witnessing is the slow reveal that the lengthy myth-telling is not in fact playing out. It takes time for the factual basis of things to emerge, after a lengthy spell of melodramatics. We are coming to realize with these election laws claims that the perception in the press is not our reality.