The hotly contested 2026 elections have put a surprising number of races in Southern states in play — and a surge of Latino voters who have soured on the Trump administration could be key to Democrats’ success in the region.

With President Trump’s approval rating below 40%, in part due to the administration’s heavy-handed immigration policies, the national political climate has shifted towards Democrats this election cycle. That sentiment has propelled Democrats to frontrunner status in U.S. Senate races in Georgia and North Carolina, and turned Texas into one of the nation’s biggest battlegrounds in 2026, attracting more than $500 million worth of political ads.

Even the U.S. Senate race in Mississippi — which national Democrats left out of a major campaign investment in August — has since attracted millions in last-minute political ad spending and a recent campaign visit from Trump.

At least 17 U.S. House seats in the South are projected to go down to the wire, three gubernatorial races are considered competitive, and hundreds of other local and state races in Southern states could shift towards Democrats amid the potential 2026 “blue wave.”

Many factors are shaping the leftward shift of the 2026 electorate, but one key development Southern Democrats are counting on is increasing engagement from Latino voters — especially younger voters, who appear to be turning out in large numbers.

The South's growing Latino electorate

The country’s Latino population nearly doubled between 2000 and 2024, and Southern states were a big part of that shift. Eight of the 15 states with the........

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