According to a new poll released today by Latino Victory Project, Latino Decisions, and America’s Voice, an overwhelming majority of Latinos – 76 percent – disapprove of President Donald Trump’s performance and 7 out 10 believe the Republican Party doesn’t care about or is hostile toward Latinos. Additionally, for the first time in polling Latinos, racism and race relations rated as one of the most important issues facing our country.
DNC Chairman Tom Perez, Latino Victory President Cristóbal J. Alex, and Latino Decisions Co-Founder Matt Barreto weighed in on today’s findings and the possible electoral ramifications for 2018. “What we see today is that the Republican Party is dramatically out of touch with Latinos. 70% of Latinos think the Republicans are either hostile to or don’t care about Latinos. That’s a remarkable rejection of the Republican Party,” said Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez. “And it’s because Republicans continue to try to take health care away from working families, it’s because they continue to wage a war on voting rights, they continue to terrorize immigrant communities, they continue to chip away labor rights, and weaken our economic safety net just to give millions of dollars in tax cuts for the wealthy.
“President Trump has been worse than we expected and has badly damaged the Republican brand in the eyes of Latinos,” said Cristóbal J. Alex, president of Latino Victory. “These findings point to an opportunity to seize upon the energy of the Latino community ahead of the 2018 and 2020 election cycles. It’s up to us to galvanize Latinos around progressive candidates that demonstrate understanding and respect for our community.”
“This is the first large-sample national Latino survey we have seen since the Summer of Racism, and across the board, Latinos are upset with almost every move Trump is making. From Charlottesville to Arpaio and everything in between, Latinos view Trump quite negatively,” said Matt A. Barreto, co-founder of Latino Decisions, and Professor of Political Science & Chicano Studies at UCLA. “More and more Latinos do not see this isolated to Trump, but the Republican Party overall is suffering with extremely low favorable ratings. If Republicans do not reject Trump and embrace Latinos they may completely close the door on reaching Latinos.”
Audio of call HERE, and the full poll results can be found here.
