The town of McAllen, Texas, was something the Democrats had considered a “sure thing” for a few reasons, but now they’ve lost a mayoral race to a Republican. Now, they’re trying to figure out how this could have happened, but one reason can be attributed to their own soft bigotry.

As Nick Arama previously covered, McAllen is a Texas border town that is 85 percent Hispanic and sits in a county that voted for Joe Biden against Donald Trump by 17 points. Even before that, they had voted for Hillary Clinton by a whopping 42 points.

Perhaps that steep drop in support for Democrats should have been the canary in the coal mine, but still, Democrats didn’t seem to raise a big fuss about it. No writing on the wall was being read. As far as they were concerned, their 85 percent Latino community was going to see them getting progressive returns for the foreseeable future.

Only that’s not what happened, and as Democrats scratch their heads as to why, taking a step back and looking at the problem from the perspective of logic and not patterns will give you the reasons.

One of the biggest reasons is that Democrats couldn’t get past the racial element of McAllen’s makeup. Yes, it’s primarily Hispanic, but the status of being “not white” is not going to automatically throw that person into the Democrat column. Democrats have long been under the impression that if the community in question is a community of color, then it’s likely going to vote for Democrats. To be fair, this was a correct assumption for some time, but it’s quickly becoming a thing of the past.

As Arama noted, the voting pattern of minority Americans slowly drifted to the right over the course of the years. The 2020 election saw 57.2 percent voting for Trump with a seven-point gain among minority women and a four-point gain with minority men. That should have been alarm enough, but apparently, that didn’t move the needle for Democrats.

Not let’s add to the fact that the Biden administration has effectively thrown open the borders and has allowed all manner of crime to begin infecting these communities. Did Democrats believe that since the people streaming through the southern border looked a lot like them that they would be good with coyotes, child trafficking, drug trafficking, murder, and assault? Indeed, crime has skyrocketed around border towns across the south, and McAllen was no exception.

The situation was dire all the way back in 2014 when Time Magazine listed McAllen as the number one most terrifying place to live out of 10 cities in the United States. Oddly enough, it got the number one spot despite lower violent crime rate than the United States overall at that time, but between the border crime causing them to stay in at night and the low economic prosperity, it just wasn’t a great place to be:

McAllen was the only metro area in which less than half of all respondents felt safe walking home alone at night. This was despite the fact that McAllen actually had a lower violent crime rate than the United States overall in 2012, at just 319 incidents per 100,000 residents, versus 387 crimes for 100,000 residents nationally. However, violence along the border with Mexico remains a concern for many McAllen residents. The State Department warns against traveling to the neighboring city of Reynosa, Mexico, due to high levels of drug-related violence. Additionally, nearly 25% of residents stated they did not have enough money for adequate shelter at some point in the previous year, by far the most of any metro area. A lack of adequate shelter may be tied to the relatively low economic prosperity in the region. In 2012, 34.5% of residents lived below the poverty line, and the median household income was just $33,761, both among the worst in the nation.

If there are two things Republicans are good at, it’s economic prosperity and border safety.

As GOP Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel tweeted, it’s those two points that brought Republicans in.

“Both rightly rejected Biden and Harris’ failed policies and voted for the GOP,” tweeted McDaniel, referencing Ft. Worth’s mayoral win as well. “Whether rejecting a crisis at the border or a squandered economic recovery, these municipalities moved decidedly toward the GOP, because our policies work.”

Both rightly rejected Biden and Harris’ failed policies and voted for the GOP. Whether rejecting a crisis at the border or a squandered economic recovery, these municipalities moved decidedly toward the GOP, because our policies work. (2/2)

— Ronna McDaniel (@GOPChairwoman) June 6, 2021

Latino voters, in particular, are making an ideological journey to the right slowly but surely. The New York Times even admitted as such last month, noting that the GOP is getting a surge of Latino voters, resulting in challenges to Democrat-held areas where they thought they had the population on lock.

It goes to show that Democrats should never count their chickens before they hatch. Being of a certain race doesn’t guarantee you loyalty, yet Democrats have played racecards of every variety to keep minority communities in line. It’s hard to continue that loyalty when you’ve turned your back on these communities, however. The border issues in Texas are beyond heinous, with horror stories being released every day.

The left ignored the people in order to flaunt a narrative, but that narrative is costing them voters, and it’ll cost them even more down the line as previously Democrat voters realize that Republicans actually do far better at governing than the left does.

If Democrats are smart, they’ll stop to realize that it’s their own racism that’s blinding them to reality, but I wouldn’t hold my breath.