20 political signs of local candidate defaced
Approximately 20 political signs along roadways in McAllen were defaced last week with spray paint spelling out slogans like “No Nazis,” “No Fascists,” and “No White Supremacist.”
Those signs belong to Republican Gary Groves, who is running in the March Primary, hoping to capture a seat in the November general election for Texas House District 41, formerly occupied by Democrat “Bobby” Guerra.
What’s going on in South Texas? On his Facebook page last week, Groves stood in front of one of his defaced signs, wearing his red MAGA hat, and said:
“As a MAGA Republican, I have fought for years to defend our American values, especially freedom of speech. So, I’m going to fight harder for our American values. It’s disappointing to see political signs being vandalized. Acts like this are not just disrespectful, they are an attack on free speech. But I will not be deterred.”
Groves is hoping to win the Republican March primary, which includes two opponents: Sarah Sagredo- Hammond and Sergio Sanchez (not the KURV Sergio).
Whether or not his admitted ties and loyalty to MAGA, President Trump, will prove a help or hindrance in the March primary, or the November general election if he gets past the primary, is yet to be determined, not counting his recently vandalized road signs.
One thing seems certain thus far – Groves is the only GOP candidate being hit (in the metaphorical sense) with a blast calling him out as a “Nazi, Fascist, White Supremacist.”
His self-admitted ideological ties to Donald Trump can’t be a coincidence since the president has also been labeled the same across the political spectrum – fascist, Nazi, even as some of his supporters describe him as the greatest president ever.
For example, Speaker of the U.S. House Mike Johnson, who has called Trump “The greatest president of our lifetimes.”
A Democrat Stronghold
For decades, dating back to the 1920s, the Rio Grande Valley has been a Democrat stronghold. So much so, that in county and state races, the Democrat candidate who won the March primary was a shoo-in, no worries, because in the November general election, the local GOP party typically had no candidate on the ballot.
For most local Dems, once they won their March primary race, if indeed they ever had an opponent, which was and is relatively rare in South Texas for incumbents, it was clear sailing until their next swearing-in ceremony the following January.
In fact, if one goes back to the early decades of the 20th Century, the RGV was part of what was called the “Solid South.” While the rest of Texas would occasionally flirt with a Republican (like voting for Herbert Hoover in 1928), the Valley rarely blinked red, with a few rare exceptions.
Eisenhower won Cameron County in 1952 and ’56; Nixon won Cameron in 1972, Reagan won the same county in 1984, and George W. won Cameron County in 2004, but aside from that, there was little cause for Republicans in the RGV to celebrate.
Starr County, however, was a Democrat stronghold like no other.
In fact, the RGV’s most western-edge county held the record for the longest unbroken Democratic voting streak in the entire U.S. It went blue in every presidential election from 1896 until 2020 when it flipped to Trump’s side. That’s 124 years without a single Republican carrying Starr County.
For approximately the last 30 years, however, the Democrats have lost every single state race since 1994, when Bob Bullock, Dan Morales, John Sharp, and Gary Mauro managed to hang on to their respective reelections.
Since those 1994 terms ended, however, the Democrat political drought has been brutal. Every single statewide office—from the governor’s mansion down to the seats on the Texas Supreme Court — has been held by a Republican.
The fact that Donald Trump won all four RGV counties in 2024 was historic, considering he failed to win even one of the counties in either 2016 or 2020.
Local Races 2026
This year, if one looks at local and state races, there are more Republicans running for office than in any prior election cycle in modern times.
For example, the Hidalgo County DA’s ballot includes both a Democrat (incumbent “Terry” Palacios) and a Republican (Lydia Elizondo) in their respective primaries.
So does the Hidalgo County JP race, Precinct 1, Place 2, and the race for Hidalgo County Treasurer.
And, too, the Hidalgo County District Clerk Race is bipartisan, so to speak – Democrat incumbent Laura Hinojosa vs. Republican challenger Maricela de Leon.
The races for the State House districts that represent the RGV from Brownsville to Starr County are also a mixed bag, Democrat vs. Republican.
They include:
# District 31 (Republican incumbent Ryan Guillen vs. Democrat J.J. Dominguez).
# District 35 (Democrat incumbent Oscar Longoria vs. Republican Oscar Rosa).
# District 37 (GOP incumbent Janie Lopez vs. three Dems and one GOP opponent).
# District 38 (Democrat incumbent Erin Gamez vs. Laura Cisneros).
# District 40 (Democrat incumbent Terry Canales vs. three Republicans).
# District 41 (an open seat since Democrat “Bobby” Guerra isn’t running for reelection, which now includes three Republicans and three Dems jockeying for position).
The other two State House Districts that represent the RGV, 36 (incumbent Sergio Munoz, Jr.) and 39 (incumbent Armando Martinez), lack a Republican challenger.
During the past year, however, with mass deportations and border security front and center, the question is, how will that affect Republican campaigns moving forward in South Texas? Especially those Republicans like Gary Groves, MAGA all the way, who have aligned themselves with the president.
Early voting will begin next Tuesday, Feb. 17, 2026, and will run through Friday, Feb. 27.
Election Day is Tuesday, March 3.