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GLENDALE, Ariz. — When Maria Isabel Ramirez crossed the U.S.-Mexico border, she dreamed of becoming financially secure enough to send money to her parents back in Mexico. She hoped that she would be able to raise a family in what she calls a "country of dreams" and that her children would find success here.
More than three decades later, sitting in her Phoenix-area living room on a recent Saturday afternoon, her face lights up as she and her husband, Alfonso, flip through family photos and videos on their phones: her youngest son, Alexander, in his regalia when he graduated from high school. Alex and his older brother, Andy, at a recent football game. One of their dog Bella's recent litters of puppies.
Maria Isabel then paused on another fairly recent memory: a video of her and Andy at a campaign rally for Donald Trump. She recalled how hot it was, waiting in line for hours on a scorching summer day. It was worth it, she said, to see the man she believes will protect and strengthen the country she calls home.
"We want it to still be a strong country," she said. "For me, since I was in Mexico, I always looked at the United States as something big - as the maximum for me."
For the United States to remain that country of dreams, she said, Trump needs to be in office. Many of her friends and family disagree and find Trump's rhetoric, particularly toward immigrants, insulting. But Maria Isabel wasn't alone in her own home: Her husband and two youngest sons voted for Trump.
Latinos like the Ramirezes were an essential part of the coalition that helped Trump retake the White House in last year's election. The president-elect won the support of 46 percent of Latino voters, the most of any Republican presidential candidate in recent history, according to exit polls. Trump and his allies specifically targeted Latino men, younger Latinos and Latinos who voted infrequently or not at all. Much of Trump's message to Latinos focused on blaming Democrats for economic problems, including inflation, which hit Latino and Black families especially hard.
Republicans have boasted that Trump's victory represents a historic realignment of the American electorate. Latino populations are growing rapidly, especially in battleground states such as Arizona, and GOP strategists hope that Trump's popularity with this key group will aid his party for years to come. But the Ramirez family, and other Latino voters, have stressed that their support for Trump does not guarantee long-term allegiance to the Republican Party. The Washington Post is going to spend the next year following Latino voters, like the Ramirez family, to examine whether Trump can maintain their support.
"Now, I'm like Arizona. I'm the pendulum," Maria Isabel said of her swing-voter status.
In conversations following Trump's victory, Alfonso and Maria Isabel said they hoped that Trump would deliver on his promises of lowering costs, cracking down on illegal immigration and protecting America from foreign threats. But they're not beholden to him or the Republican Party - and they say they're open to a Democratic Party that meets the wants and needs of working-class voters like themselves.
"We're not putting our guard down," Alfonso said. "Trump has the majority in Congress, so let's hope he keeps his promises and does the work. I know he can't do magic, but I want to see how he works on the issues."
"If the Democrat next time sways me with everything I expect from them, then my vote will go to them," Maria Isabel added. "But if they do nothing, if next time they bring me another basket of the same false promises …"
"Let's wait and see," Alfonso interjected.
•
Maria Isabel, known to her friends as Isa, made the decision to cross the U.S.-Mexico border illegally in hopes of economic opportunity. It's a time she doesn't like to relive, she says, thanking God as she looked over at the large cross hanging in her living room.
"I'll just leave it at: I could easily write a book from that time," she said, nervously laughing as Alfonso reached over to gently touch her arm.
Maria Isabel's immigration status changed when she married Alfonso in the mid-1990s after meeting him in New Jersey. Alfonso, 57, had come to the United States with a visa to be with his father, who emigrated from Mexico when Alfonso was a small child, so he was able to help Maria Isabel, 52, gain legal status and ultimately become naturalized. They eventually settled in the Phoenix area, where their sons were born.
The couple's two younger sons are in college and live at home when they aren't at school. Maria Isabel, Alfonso and their eldest son, Alfonso Jr., all work for Amazon. She's a coordinator focused on disposing of damaged goods, and he works unloading trailers. Their eldest son works in HR. (Amazon founder Jeff Bezos owns The Post.)
Despite a busy work schedule, Maria Isabel makes a point to stay informed. She watches the local news on TV. She volunteers with local organizations to keep tabs on the issues affecting her community. She reads up on politics, whether it's on her Facebook feed or from searching certain issues online.
"I always instilled in my sons the importance of their vote, of their responsibility to serve their community. I take that seriously," Maria Isabel said.
Alfonso and Maria Isabel trace their rightward political evolution to Barack Obama's presidency. Alfonso identified as a Democrat when he became a U.S. citizen and cast his first presidential vote for Bill Clinton. He enthusiastically backed Obama both times. And Maria Isabel, who became a U.S. citizen in the middle of Obama's first term, was thrilled that she got to vote for him in 2012.
"Our friends and family all said Democrats were for our people. So we thought the same," she said.
They remember Obama giving speeches on the campaign trail as a candidate, pledging that comprehensive immigration reform would be a top priority in his first year as president. But instead he focused on economic stimulus and health-care reform - and by the time he moved to immigration reform during his administration, they said, he didn't have the political capital to make it happen. Since then, Congress has repeatedly failed to tackle the issue.
"Obama dominated in Washington when he came in. He had the Senate. He had the House of Representatives. He could've done immigration reform and he didn't. If he couldn't then, no one is going to do it," Maria Isabel said.
Maria Isabel's frustration with Democrats' handling of immigration has only grown in recent years. The Biden administration, she says, has allowed millions of new people to cross the border while failing to offer hope of legal status to millions of undocumented people who have lived here for decades. The Biden administration's immigration policy has focused largely on the border and recent arrivals in the face of a massive influx of migrants during his term. Some of his efforts to help longtime undocumented immigrants have been blocked by the courts.
"At the end of the day, there are people who have been working for years and are still in the shadows. What about them?" she said.
So how does she justify swinging from voting for a candidate who promised comprehensive immigration reform to one who backs mass deportations?
"I've always said: I prefer a truth that hurts me instead of a lie that's only giving me hope. … I know what I get with Trump," Maria Isabel said.
Alfonso and Maria Isabel also said they didn't like how Democrats replaced President Joe Biden after his poor debate performance. By not holding a primary to replace Biden, they said, Democrats robbed Americans of a choice - a cornerstone of U.S. democracy - all while calling Trump a threat to democracy.
"How is that right?" Maria Isabel questioned.
As an immigrant, Alfonso admits feeling conflicted when it comes to immigration and what Trump has vowed to do. He doesn't believe Trump will follow through on deporting millions of undocumented immigrants, writing it off as an exaggeration and arguing that many of Trump's predecessors vowed to carry out large-scale deportations that didn't happen. Trump has said he will execute "the largest domestic deportation operation in American history."
"I don't think he's going to do it. I think it'll be the same show," Alfonso said. "He said he was going to build a border wall and Mexico was going to pay for it and that didn't happen. He just put up some new fencing in some parts, and people still cross anyway."
Maria Isabel is defensive when talking about the issue. She believes Trump will focus only on deporting criminals and people who don't want to work and are living on government assistance. (Undocumented immigrants do not qualify for most federal benefit programs.) But she knows he could deport some good people. And those good people could include her family members and friends who are undocumented.
"It's unfortunate," she said after a long pause.
Alfonso later admitted he did think Trump would deport many undocumented immigrants - not just criminals - but it was necessary because too many people have crossed the border in recent years and Trump "has to defend our country."
"I always say: We have to be logical. This country is our country now. This is our home," he said. "Maybe I sound egotistical because oh, I have my papers, but it's the reality. It's our country."
Maria Isabel said she's been cut off by some friends for backing Trump. Even with Trump making gains among Latinos, she said, in her circles at work and among friends, most supported Vice President Kamala Harris.
"I feel like Trump has been branded as a racist, misogynist, everything bad - and to vote for him is a sin," she said. "I've told people, 'If you want to stop talking to me, I don't care.'"
The couple argued that Trump had a successful first term and he should be judged for that, not for his rhetoric.
Latinos ranked the economy as the single most important issue affecting their vote, according to a New York Times/Siena poll released weeks before the election. The same poll found that 80 percent of Hispanic voters rated the economic conditions as fair or poor, compared with 20 percent who said it was good or excellent.
"My finances were much better. And the country's economy was better. It's not just me - in general it was better for everybody," Alfonso said.
At one point, Maria Isabel considered backing Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s third-party bid, but she settled on Trump because she felt she already knew what to expect from him.
"Más vale diablo conocido que nuevo por conocer," she said. Better the devil you know than the devil you don't.
Now, as Trump's term is set to officially start, Alfonso and Maria Isabel are excited to see what he'll get done. They admit it will probably take a while to see real results - but they hope within a few months prices will be lower, the border will be more orderly, at least one of the conflicts abroad will be resolved and the world will feel more stable.
Their only concern, so far, is why tech billionaire Elon Musk is around so much. "What business does he have getting involved in politics?" Alfonso questioned before acknowledging that Trump, too, did not come from a political background. "Still, I feel like there's something suspicious there."
"I love to give the benefit of the doubt, so vamos a ver," Maria Isabel said. We'll see.
• 'I really wasn't 100 percent with either'
While it took years for Maria Isabel and Alfonso to find themselves voting for a Republican, their sons Andy and Alex came to Trump after a few weeks of seeing ads and doing last-minute research. (Their older brother, who was not interviewed for this story, prefers to keep his political views private, Maria Isabel said.)
Trump made especially strong inroads with young Latino men like Andy and Alex.
Both are college students who cast their ballots for the first time. Neither identifies with a party. In the months leading up to the election, both said they were undecided. But in the final days before the election, both said the economy drove them to vote for Trump.
"I saw a lot of ads that said, like, 'You shouldn't vote for Trump because he was a convicted felon and he has multiple charges' - and then also some for Kamala saying that, like, 'She does not know what she's saying,'" Andy said. "It could be confusing. … But I ended up picking off who had the best plan for the country."
Alex, 18, voted for Trump but notes that he's not nearly as interested in or plugged into politics as his parents are. Really, he's more focused on navigating his first year of college at the University of Arizona in Tucson. He comes home regularly to see his parents and his girlfriend, who attends Arizona State University in nearby Tempe.
Over the holidays, Alex worked a temporary job at Amazon to make some extra cash. Before heading in for a shift on a recent Saturday, he sat on the sofa in the living room of his childhood home, talking about his frustrations with how expensive everything has gotten.
"It's concerning," he said, describing running errands for his mom and seeing how much the price of goods have gone up at the nearby Food City.
No single policy proposal drew Alex to Trump or turned him off from Harris, he said. But he had a feeling that Trump was more focused on the economy than she was.
"I think [Harris] was a pretty good candidate, too," he said. "But comparing them both, I just didn't think she was as strong as Trump was from an economics standpoint."
Andy, 20, felt similarly. He argued that he never really heard an economic plan from Harris and instead felt like she focused too much on LGBTQ+ issues. Though LGBTQ+ issues were not a part of Harris's stump speech, Republicans spent millions on the airwaves casting the vice president as an extreme liberal without a plan for the economy.
"I'm barely starting life. I want to buy a house someday, raise a family. So him talking about being able to lower the cost of houses got my vote," said Andy, who is in his third year at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff.
Even after casting his ballot for Trump, Alex admits to some degree of ambivalence about his choice. "It's not like I'm really jumping out of my chair" because Trump won, he said.
"I really wasn't 100 percent with either candidate," he said. "I don't hate him, but I also wouldn't say I'm die-hard."
Now, in the wake of the election, he has noticed the uptick in liberals criticizing people like him for backing Trump. "I've seen a lot of 'How can you vote against your own people?'" he said.
"It's a little -" he paused to choose his words, "- interesting to see how mad and upset they are."
That kind of reaction certainly wasn't going to help Democrats win him over in the future, he said. His brother agreed. If Democrats have any chance of winning back people like them, Andy said, they should listen to why they voted for Trump and not make false assumptions.
"At NAU, people were like, 'If you don't vote for Democrats, then you're racist and you're a homophobe and you don't care for women' and stuff. Those things kind of drive me away," Andy said.
"That's not who I am," he added. "I know that's not who I am."