The signs of a political shift in the reliably blue counties that line Texas's southern border with Mexico had been coming. Local Republican offices were emerging in places like Starr County that had not voted for a Democrat for president in a century.
'You can tell me things are better, but if my food stamps don't last the month, I'm not going to believe you,' said Toni Treviño, the chair of the Republican Party in Starr County.
Trump soundly defeated Harris in 12 of 14 Texas counties touching the border - from the sparsely populated ranchlands in the west to more urban communities in the east where most residents identify as Hispanic, Tejano or Latino.
Political scientist Alvaro Corral of the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley said Trump's stunning victory points at something deeper than just the allure of one candidate to a large group of people.
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