Republicans are increasingly nervous that President Donald Trump’s slipping support on immigration and the economy — two key issues that helped him win in 2024 — could cost them the midterm elections. The Super Bowl halftime show won’t help their anxiety.
Republicans, meanwhile, are negotiating with Democrats on a spending bill for the Department of Homeland Security. They have less than a week to make a deal or risk a shutdown at the department at the center of the immigration crackdown.
Several Republicans, who have largely been in lock-step with the administration, say the immigration raids went too far.
Even after announcing the withdrawal of 700 Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents from Minnesota and an earlier drawdown in Maine, Trump’s hardline approach threatens to isolate Latino voters ahead of the midterms, sidelining a critical voter bloc that helped him get elected.
Republican strategist Mike Madrid, who specializes in Latino voters, said the president’s immigration and economic policies have turned key voting blocs away from him. He emphasized that the Republican loss in Texas was remarkable given how Trump performed in 2024.
“I’ve never seen that in three-and-a-half decades of work,” Madrid said. “The two strengths that he had in building a multiracial coalition have not only collapsed, but they have really cemented against him.”
“In the past, it had always been the economy over immigration as an issue,” said Mark Lopez, director of race and ethnicity research at Pew. But now, “a growing share of Latinos say that they’re worried about deportations of somebody they know or even themselves.”
“And so all things are pointing to immigration rising as an issue,” he added.
After Trump took office, the largely Spanish-speaking Bad Bunny said he would avoid the mainland US on his next world tour, saying he didn’t want to put his fans at risk of being arrested by ICE at his shows.
“ICE out,” the artist, whose name is Benito Antonio Martinez Ocasio, said at the Grammy Awards on Feb. 1. “We’re not savage, we’re not animals, we’re not aliens. We are humans and we are Americans.”
Trump won’t tune in to watch the halftime show, the White House has said, but more than 100 million others will.
In protest over Bad Bunny’s leading role at the Super Bowl, critics have organized an alternate “All-American Halftime Show” headlined by Trump supporter Kid Rock and backed by the late Charlie Kirk’s Turning Point USA group.
Besides withdrawing hundreds of ICE agents, the White House has taken other steps to deescalate tensions in Minneapolis. Tom Homan, the administration’s border czar, was sent in to replace Greg Bovino, the controversial on-the-ground commander who critics say fueled conflict. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem also said that all officers in Minneapolis will now wear a body camera.
“I don’t think it matters how much Republicans want to change the narrative around affordability,” said Democratic strategist Chuck Rocha, who specializes in Latino voters. “All that people in the community see is terror in our streets.”
Even with the midterm elections still nine months away, many Republicans worry the damage has already been done.
“Hispanics are leaving the GOP in large numbers, and pretending otherwise won’t fix it,” Representative Maria Elvira Salazar, a south Florida Republican, said in a social media post on Jan. 27. “As Republicans, we must reverse course and act now.”
