Republicans can win the House in 2026 through Puerto Rican voters

Midterm elections have historically cost the party in power seats in Congress, and this November could be no different as Republicans face a difficult path to keeping their narrow majority in the U.S. House. Republicans must engage with a swing voting bloc the party misunderstands: Puerto Ricans, the second-largest Hispanic voting bloc in the U.S. To start winning these voters back, Republicans must stop attacking Puerto Rican statehood.

On July 15, the Puerto Rico Statehood Council, which I chair, released a new poll on Hispanic and Puerto Rican voters conducted by McLaughlin and Associates, President Trump’s own pollster. Sixty-eight percent of Hispanic voters broadly support statehood, as well as 71 percent of Puerto Ricans, meaning the issue is mostly reward with little political risk.

Here is the number that President Trump and House Republican leaders should internalize because it shows they can win Puerto Ricans if they ignore misguided advice and stop attacking statehood: 78 percent of Republican Puerto Rican voters approve of statehood and only 13 percent disapprove. More Republican voting Puerto Ricans support statehood than Democrats (69 percent). The results confirm that the statehood movement aligns with conservative values. Beyond that, 68 percent of Republican Puerto Ricans say they’re more likely to vote for a candidate who supports........

© The Hill