Two independent newsrooms are teaming up to document how Latino and Puerto Rican voters in Pennsylvania are rethinking their politics ahead of 2026 and what it means for 2028. This work is supported by URL Media.
TANTV News and Nick Valencia News are hitting the road ahead of the 2026 midterms to one of the most consequential states in American elections: Pennsylvania. The two outlets are launching a joint reporting project built around a simple premise –the people best positioned to explain what’s happening to the Latino vote in Pennsylvania are the voters themselves.
Why Pennsylvania, Why Now
Pennsylvania was long considered part of the Democratic “blue wall.” In 2024, it flipped red and one of the coalitions that helped push it over the edge was the state’s Latino community, particularly its Puerto Rican population, which numbers somewhere between roughly 300,000 and half a million eligible voters, among the largest Puerto Rican electorates outside Florida and New York.
That shift wasn’t primarily about immigration. National exit polling and state-level analysis both point to economic anxiety, inflation, grocery prices, gas, and housing costs as the dominant driver. Latino voters nationally swung roughly eight points toward Donald Trump in 2024, a movement analysts attribute largely to pocketbook concerns rather than cultural or immigration politics.
Two years later, those same economic pressures haven’t disappeared . They’ve become entangled with new ones, including tariff policy and rising utility and food costs, according to reporting from Pennsylvania’s Lehigh Valley, one of the state’s most closely watched battlegrounds.
The Vote Is Moving Again
New data suggests the 2024 Latino swing toward Republicans is not settling into a permanent realignment. A September 2026 BSP Research/Shaw & Co. poll conducted for the American Business Immigration Coalition and American Families United found Democrats now lead Republicans 56%-29% on the generic congressional ballot among Latino voters across seven battleground states including Pennsylvania with the Democratic advantage roughly 11 points wider than the party’s actual 2024 Latino margin.
That reversal is playing out on the ground in places like Allentown and Bethlehem, at the heart of Pennsylvania’s 7th Congressional District, where Latino residents make up about 23% of the population and more than half of Allentown itself. The district held by Republican Rep. Ryan Mackenzie after Republicans flipped it in 2024 and now being contested by Democrat Bob Brooks is considered a bellwether for whether Democrats can win back working-class Latino voters without alienating suburban ones. Local organizers describe an electorate laser-focused on costs: gas prices, meat and grocery bills, electricity rates, and the broader question of whether anyone in Washington is actually listening.
At the same time, Pennsylvania’s Latino population has the lowest median household income of any racial or ethnic group in the state, with wages lagging behind rising costs and homeownership trailing the statewide average underlying vulnerabilities that make this bloc especially responsive to economic messaging from either party.
Independent Newsrooms with Shared Assignment
TANTV News and Nick Valencia News brought together by URL Media to report this story from inside the communities living it, rather than through campaign talking points or national polling averages alone. Nick Valencia brings nearly two decades of national correspondent experience from CNN, where he covered immigration, policing, and underrepresented communities before going independent in 2025 to build a reporting platform centered on frontline, community-driven journalism. TANTV an established media tech entity has continued to be a force in building technology infrastructure serving the industry and a newsroom that leads to advance the inclusion of Black and multicultural voices through local journalism. That approach of elevating the voices of people directly affected by the news, rather than reporting about them from a distance is the operating premise for this Pennsylvania project.
The collaboration is soliciting first-person accounts from Pennsylvania voters, especially those reconsidering their 2024 vote, on questions including:
– Why some voters who backed Republicans in 2024 are considering a shift back to Democrats in 2026 or holding firm.
– Whether economic conditions have improved, worsened, or simply changed shape since the last election.
– What issues voters expect candidates to address before Election Day, and whether they feel heard.
– Whether a 2026 shift would carry through to 2028, or reflect a one-time correction.
This is Your Invitation to Air Your Voice and Get Heard!
TANTV News and Nick Valencia News are asking Pennsylvania voters, particularly Latino and Puerto Rican voters in communities like Allentown, Reading, Lancaster, and Bethlehem, to share their stories directly with the reporting team as the project builds toward the midterms. The goal is a body of on-the-record, first-person reporting that captures not just how people are voting, but why, and what they believe is genuinely at stake for their families, their wages, and their communities.
Voters interested in sharing their story can reach out to TANTV News or Nick Valencia News to be included in the coverage, using this form Here. TAKE THE SURVEY