SAN DIEGO — Meet one of the patron saints of the Texas tornado that helped turn a red state into a purple one.

Lorenzo Salgado Araujo was a 52-year-old construction worker in Houston with a wife and three children. He had come from Mexico without authorization more than three decades ago as a teenager. His lack of legal status did not prevent him from finding multiple jobs over the years thanks to a cohort that doesn't get mentioned very often in the immigration debate: employers. They tend to escape scrutiny.

Araujo had lived in the United States for more than three decades, doing jobs that Americans won't do, paying taxes and trying to obtain legal status — a process that is much more difficult than it sounds. Then, on July 7, he was on his way to work when his vehicle was stopped by masked men in an unmarked car who claimed to be with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

Araujo's name didn't appear on any government list, and he wasn't someone who ICE was looking for that day. He was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. When the masked men approached the vehicle, he shifted gears and prepared to drive away. The men opened fire and killed him. None of the agents wore body cameras.

In Magnolia Park, the heavily Latino Houston neighborhood where Araujo was murdered, there's a memorial that resembles the one set up to honor George Floyd in Minneapolis. On the first day of early voting, Araujo's oldest son, Ronaldo, cast his ballot and affixed his "I voted" sticker onto his father's memorial. In the days that followed, hundreds of people did the same. Some even left messages, like the one that read: "I voted for you." By the time the actual Election Day came around, there were more than 1,000 stickers.

Talk about understanding the assignment and completing it with flying colors.

From Alaska to Maine, the 2026 midterms were full of great stories. None more powerful than that one.

At least a half-dozen things that happened during the midterm elections surprised the heck out of me. On my bingo card, I didn't have the Mississippi governor's race coming down to the wire or Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine going down in flames.

But one of the biggest surprises was how the star of the elections turned out to be the Lone Star State. From El Paso to Dallas to Houston to Austin, Latino voters made their voices heard.

The shouting first started during early voting, when Latinos showed up in droves. More than 5 million Latinos voted early, and 2 million were from just one state: Texas.

Mike Madrid, a California-based political consultant who co-hosts the Latino Vote podcast, told The Atlantic that the percentage of early votes in Texas included more ballots cast by Latino voters than any other group, including white voters.

On Election Day, that trend continued — and not just in Texas, but also nationwide.

In its 2026 Midterm Election Voter Poll, the Latino advocacy group UnidosUS found that 14.5 million Hispanics voted during the midterms, and that a majority voted for Democrats. The poll also found that Latinos supported Democratic candidates in 67% of the House races, 63% of the Senate races and 66% of the gubernatorial races.

In Texas, it was Tejanos — Latino Texans — who put James Talerico in the Senate, Gina Hinojosa in the governor's mansion, and a bunch of Democrats across the Bluebonnet State into the "win" column.

Personally, I thought the big story of the midterm elections would be Michigan — where many eyes were fixed because of a highly contentious Senate race that wound up sending Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, a Democrat, to the upper chamber.

But, in the end, it was Texas that captivated the nation's attention. You can see why. Just as California and New York are thought of as the big states for Democrats, Florida and Texas have long been considered the major states for Republicans. So when Texas becomes a little less red, it's big news.

Of course, Texas didn't go full blue. There are still plenty of Republican-leaning counties scattered throughout the state. It does now, however, have a distinct purple hue. From this point on, political observers need to think of Texas as a jump ball. If the parties want those votes, they're going to have to go out and work hard for them. Any way you slice the brisket, that's a step in the right direction.

I bet Lorenzo Salgado Araujo would be pleased.

To find out more about Ruben Navarrette and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

Photo credit: Jesse Paul at Unsplash