California Democrat Scott Peters, a former environmental lawyer, represents a majority Anglo district near the Mexican border town of Tijuana.

Texas Republican Will Hurd, a 39-year-old former CIA officer who’s nearly two decades younger that Peters, represents a majority Latino district a thousand miles to the east that spans 40 percent of America’s border with Mexico.

Hurd has voted reliably with his party during his two terms in Congress, as has Peters with his party, although slightly less so, during his three terms. Both are targets of the opposite party’s campaign committee in 2018.

But when it comes to protecting the economic interests of the border region — and these members argue, the nation — they’ve often been “border members” first, and Republicans and Democrats second.

“People on the border get it,” Peters said in an interview in his Capitol Hill office last week.