Texas Tribune Marvels That Even in Uvalde, Voters Went Harder for Trump Than Ever

Much of the national media described Oasis Outback, where the Robb Elementary shooter bought his AR-15, as a “gun store.” That does not convey an accurate sense of the place, which contains racks upon racks of hunting clothes that flow seamlessly into a restaurant with a full salad bar. If you wade through the sea of camo to the far back left corner—opposite the eatery—there is, in fact, a gun store tucked away in a small rectangular room. If you walk out the front doors, through a courtyard area with rocking chairs and grills, and hang a left, you’ll find the feed store.

Just outside the courtyard, under the shade of a tree, I struck up a conversation with local youth minister Diego Ruiz as he waited for his wife, who was participating in a nearby bake sale, to emerge. Wearing a backward baseball cap, Ruiz looked younger than his 29 years as he corralled his small daughter. He spoke passionately about the need to live out Christian virtues—“protect the poor, the widow, the mom who needs help”—and told me that, though he’d been on the fence, he’d voted for Trump because the Republican Party professed to share his biblical values and tracked closer to his socially conservative views on issues such as abortion. 

When the shooting happened, Ruiz had taught U.S. history at Morales Junior High School, a little more than two miles away from Robb Elementary. The kids stopped playing kickball to go back inside for what he and other teachers assumed was another routine lockdown because of a high-speed chase. Afterward, he started keeping a bat in his classroom; he became open to the idea of teachers wielding guns. Ruiz watched as the city became the focal point of political campaigns and gun control activism nationwide. He surmised that this had an impact on the way some voted. “Uvalde kept being used as a weapon,” said Ruiz. “I think that riled people up in a way to show up. I do think that had a huge effect.”

On the other side of the courtyard, seated in one of the rocking chairs, 24-year-old Sean Rodriguez, a gun owner, told me he supported enhanced background checks as a requirement for firearm ownership but was not surprised gun control had failed to animate voters for the Democratic Party. “It’s Texas,” he said matter-of-factly. “Especially with all the ranches we have in the surrounding counties, people weren’t just going to give up their rights to purchase a firearm.” He told me that when he voted, faith and the economy stood as the most important issues. He favored Joe Biden in 2020. This year, he cast a ballot for Trump. 

— Allegra Hobbs in Why Uvalde—A Rallying Cry for Texas Democrats—Went for Trump