WASHINGTON — Latino voters are concerned about the high cost of living, the minimum wage and rising housing costs ahead of the November election, according to a comprehensive poll released this week by UnidosUS, the nation’s largest civil rights and Latino advocacy center.
“Establishing a coherent economic policy program that resonates with Latinos… I think that would help our community a lot,” Janet Murguía, president and CEO of UnidosUS, told reporters during a call detailing survey results.
This 3,000 eligible Latino voters participated in the survey who were surveyed in English or Spanish from Aug. 5 to 23, with an overrepresentation of residents of Georgia, North Carolina, Arizona, Pennsylvania, Nevada, Florida, Texas and California. The poll, conducted by BSP Research, had a margin of error of plus or minus 1.8 percentage points.
Murguía said Latinos are the second largest voting-age group, and 1 in 5 of them will vote for the first time in the presidential election in November.
“The biggest issue is the wallet,” she said. “Latino voters are most concerned, like many other Americans, about the rising cost of living.”
Another issue that Latinos strongly support is access to abortion. According to the poll, Latinos oppose a ban on abortion by a margin of 71% to 21%.
“They do not support making it illegal,” Murguía said.
Workers earning minimum wage
Latino voters prioritize wages and jobs that provide economic security, said Gary Segura, who conducted the poll for UnidosUS.
Latino workers are disproportionately immense in the workforce who earn the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour, which has not increased since 2009. If the federal minimum wage kept pace with inflation, it would be about $24 an hour, According to the AFL-CIO.
“The Latino economy is different from the economy of the country as a whole,” Segura said.
Segura said that during the survey, pollsters asked respondents about their concerns about jobs and wages, and they found that the most essential issue was the need to pay for basic expenses such as food and housing.
“People are having a hard time making ends meet,” he said.
The most common response was that “the job doesn’t pay enough, or I have to take a second job to make ends meet,” Segura said. “We talk a lot about low unemployment in this society now, which is certainly good news, but the problem is that many of these jobs don’t pay enough for the person doing them to basically cover their basic living costs.”
Opinions on immigration
Murguía noted that immigration, which has become a major campaign issue for Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump, is the fifth priority among Latino voters, tied with concerns about gun violence and effortless access to assault weapons.
“We want to make it clear that Latino voters generally do not buy into campaign tactics that demonize immigrants,” Murguía said. “They know the difference between those who want to harm us and those who contribute to the fabric of our nation.”
The survey found that Latino voters overwhelmingly support a legal path to citizenship for those in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (Dreamers) program and for long-term undocumented immigrants.
Trump promised mass deportations if he wins a second term, a policy issue that has “virtually no support” among Latino voters surveyed, Segura said.
Segura added that while Trump campaigned on the issue, his promise to carry out mass deportations is not particularly well-known in Latino communities.
“A lot of people we talk to believe that (Trump) would do it if he could, but they just don’t believe he can do it,” Segura said. “So there’s a lack of both awareness of these really draconian measures or proposals and faith that they’re actually going to be implemented.”
He added that he sees it as an opportunity for Democrats to campaign on the issue, but Vice President Kamala Harris has mainly criticized Trump for rejecting a bipartisan agreement on border security.
“Our results show that the top concerns about the border are from voters who originally leaned Republican, so I don’t see a major shift there or a major risk to (Democrats), particularly with targeted ads and Latino voters,” Segura said.
“Disparaging and belittling language”
The poll found that 55% of Latinos have not been contacted by any political party this year.
“We often hear really dismissive and belittling language about Latino participation in elections,” Segura said. “’Latinos don’t vote as much as they should. Latinos are going to let you down,’ and so on, and nobody ever wants to address the problem that is so obvious, which is that nobody is asking Latinos to vote.”
Harris’ campaign last month launched a bilingual WhatsApp campaign aimed at Latino voters. Michelle Villegas, national director of Latino engagement for the Harris campaign, told the Hispanic Caucus at the Democratic National Convention that Latino votes are key to victory in three key states — Arizona, Nevada, and Pennsylvania.
The poll also found that the vice presidential candidates had an impact on Latino voters. Harris’ vice presidential candidate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, gave her a 3-point boost; Trump’s vice presidential candidate, Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance, dropped his rating by 3 points.
“Vance has (a) negative impact on the Republican ticket, consistent with his low popularity among Latino voters,” the study found.
While Democrats are ahead among Latino voters and Harris is enjoying a boost in support compared to when President Joe Biden was in the race, she still hasn’t reached the levels of Latino support seen in previous elections, said Clarissa Martinez De Castro, vice president of the Latino Vote Initiative at UnidosUS.
“We need to work to get to the level of support that Democrats need and have achieved in previous elections. We also need to do more outreach to these voters, especially on economic and immigration issues,” Martinez De Castro said.
Equis Research, a Latino voter research and polling firm, found in a recent study tHarris has gained significant support among Latinos, but “remains several points behind what Biden received in 2020” in all key states.
