Mexican-origin governors and U.S. Congress power after the 2026 midterm elections, Digi Mart USA News (Mexico City): Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum on Wednesday celebrated that California and Texas will be governed by two people of Mexican origin, Xavier Becerra and Gina Hinojosa, and read in it “a sentiment of the American people.”
Proceso’s Washington correspondent, J. Jesús Esquivel, disagrees plainly: “With the governors, they win absolutely nothing.” He acknowledges the diplomatic value, noting that Becerra is an experienced former legislator and that both can build bridges, but stresses that no governor has a vote in the federal Congress, where everything is decided.
According to Esquivel, the pending work belongs to the president and to Ambassador Roberto Lazzeri: cultivating the Democrats who have just taken both chambers without neglecting Republicans, since the general elections of November 2028 are two years away and everything can change. He warns that if Democrats fail to meet voter expectations, voters will hold them accountable just as they did with Trump.
Esquivel described President Trump as having woken up differently. The president received reporters while showing them a ballroom under construction at the White House, answered little, and appeared, in Esquivel’s words, “annoyed, a bit humble”: “I think he woke up with reality in his face.”
Starting January 3, 2027, when the new legislature convenes, the House Appropriations Committee will be in Democratic hands and could deny funding for military operations, anti-immigration actions, the Department of Homeland Security and even his projects in Washington. On threatened incursions against drug trafficking in Mexico, Esquivel doubts they will be carried out: the president has just over 25 months left, will not appear on any ballot and is losing political capital.
Esquivel identifies the cause of the defeat in southern Texas, in Laredo, El Paso and McAllen: Latino voters who backed Trump two years ago voted this time to punish ICE, DEA and FBI actions against relatives, friends and workers, and in some cases against U.S. citizens detained by mistake.
He warns that until January 3 Congress remains under Republican control and “can still cause headaches.”
