In the Rio Grande Valley, what's on voters' minds ahead of the election?
With Election Day approaching, candidates up and down the ballot are making their final push to reach voters. CBS News Texas has been following the polls and covering political events all year long in a quest to find the Texas State of Mind.
But ultimately, it's the people who matter and who will decide what happens. In an effort to get a better understanding of what voters across the Lone Star State will be thinking about as they cast their ballots, reporter Jason Allen and a CBS News Texas crew are spending the weeks leading up to the election traveling across the state, speaking to people from the Chihuahuan Desert to the Pineywoods.
Last week, Jason traveled to the Texas High Plains. This week, we head to the southernmost region in the state: the Rio Grande Valley.
MCALLEN – The Rio Grande Valley has been one of Texas' few Democratic strongholds for decades. But in recent years, Republicans believe they've made inroads in turning the majority-Hispanic region red.
Jason and the crew traveled to McAllen in September for the Tacos Tequilas & Chelas Festival. Although the McAllen-Edinburg-Mission area is one of the region's major metro areas with more than a million residents, the people we spoke with touted the community's small-town feel. Many named the people, pace and culture as things they love about living in the Valley.
But while the people we spoke with love the area, they also said they think it's misunderstood.
"I think people think the Valley is kind of poor," said one man, taking orders at a taco stand.
"You don't have to go far to read a lot of things in the news, misconceptions about the people here, the Hispanic culture," said another, who was working as a photographer at the festival's lucha libre competition.
"I know they talk about immigrants, immigrants, immigrants, but the Valley was built by immigrants," said another man. "And back in the day, we were a part of Mexico."
McAllen native and Texas Tribune reporter Berenice Garcia said the issue is nuanced in the Valley – even for families who've spent generations in the region. For many, she said, the issue hits close to home because people have family members who are U.S. Border Patrol agents.
"They hear a lot about their experiences and they say, 'Well, my husband works in Border Patrol and tells me how much a wall would be beneficial for their work,'" Garcia said.
But some people may view the issue through a different lens.
"Other people have friends who are immigrants or who are undocumented and they see their struggle," Garcia said. "So in that sense it is a big issue for them, but not in terms of border security. They talk more about the humanitarian side of it."
Regardless of where people fall on the issue, one man told us it's more complicated than people who don't live in the area might realize.
"I definitely see how we should be more protective of our borders," he said. "But at the same time, the community down here is so intertwined with Mexico."
While many of the people we spoke to listed the border and the economy as the driving forces behind their Election Day votes, we met a couple of people who said they won't be casting a ballot at all in November.
"I learned that everybody does what they want to do," said one man. "They can feed you what they want the whole election year and at the end of the day they still don't come through."
This story is one of several CBS News Texas is releasing in the weeks leading up to the election, trying to find the Texas State of Mind. We asked every person we met on the road for their essential road trip song. Below is the playlist we put together of those recommendations.