So even as a California native, I consider Texas my second home. My mom was born there. I lived there for five years while writing for the Dallas Morning News. I met my wife there almost a quarter century ago. Our oldest daughter was born there, and we still have plenty of family and friends who live there. And as such, I take offense when someone makes a mess in Texas. The latest mess is the handiwork of Republicans in the Lone Star State, and specifically of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. The AGs office recently launched a series of late night and early morning raids at the homes of democratic activists and Latino leaders that Paxton claims were spurred by allegations of voter fraud and part of a bigger probe into so called vote harvesting, the searches didn’t turn up evidence of any wrongdoing. Besides, voter fraud is extremely rare and difficult to prove. The League of United Latin American Citizens, LULAC, the nation’s oldest Latino civil rights group, sees things differently to them, these election year raids are nothing more than a blatant attempted voter intimidation that could well be it’s significant that several of those who had their homes raided are actively involved in signing up new voters, new Latino voters. This includes an 87 year old grandmother named Lydia Martinez, who lives in San Antonio. She was pulled from her home and told to wait outside in her nightgown as nosy neighbors looked on. In a letter to the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, the President and CEO of LULAC, Roman Palomares and Juan peruano, respectively, requested immediate action by the federal agency. Look, I’m no fan of LULAC. The organization pretends to do five things it doesn’t do serve Latinos, represent Latinos, keep an open mind, be nonpartisan and remain independent. For crying out loud, in August, the group endorsed the Democrat ticket of Kamala Harris and Tim Walz before the Democratic Convention had even started in Chicago. This was before LULAC leaders had even heard what the Democrats were going to do for them and our community. Talk about a cheap date if you want to know why Latinos have no power politically, groups like LULAC are a big part of the reason, still in this drama, they’re the good guys, and it’s the Republicans who are wearing the black hats. As a former Texan, let me explain to you what this is really about in a word race, in other word demographics, as in changing demographics. Did you know The population of Texas is now about 39% Latino? Did you know that Latinos who tend to register and vote Democratic are helping to turn this red state purple, starting in the major cities? Did you know that Latinos who are eligible to vote either because they were born in the United States or came here as immigrants and became naturalized? Do you know what they’re showing up at polling stations in unprecedented numbers? You know, who knows all this Republicans in Texas? That’s who? Yeah, you’d better believe it, and they’re terrified of it, like a child who knows he has misbehaved and they just due for spanking. They’re trying to find ways to get out of their punishment. The last thing they want to see is more Latinos casting ballots because they’re insecure in their ability to win some of those votes the way that Republicans did in the past. You would never have seen a stunt like this pulled in the Texas of the 1990s when George W Bush was governor, he got nearly 50% of the Latino vote in his 1998 reelection, Bush had no need to suppress the Latino vote, because he was confident that when all was said and done, he was going to walk away with more than his share of it. The Texas Republican Party of today is very different. Instead of carrots to lure Latino voters to their side, they offer only sticks. Look, I usually try not to speak for other Latinos, but here I’ll make an exception. My message to the GOP is pretty simple, if you want us to stop hating, you stop acting so hateful.