A new round of polling is causing consternation among Democrats on this point. Axios has a good run-down:
Joe Biden’s support with Hispanic voters is softer than Hillary Clinton’s in 2016, worrying key Biden supporters in the Hispanic community, Hans Nichols reports.
- A Florida poll by Marist/NBC shows President Trump and Biden tied overall, and Trump up 50%-46% with Hispanics.
- Trump leads “sizably among Latinos of Cuban descent, . . . with Biden just slightly ahead among all other Latinos in the state,” NBC reports.
Why it matters: Hispanic voters make up more than 20% of the electorate in Florida and Arizona — two swing states that Trump won in 2016, but now could deliver Biden the White House.
- “For the campaign to win, I expect them to do more,” said Rep. Tony Cardenas (D-Texas), who ran the Congressional Hispanic Caucus’s PAC.
- “It’s undeniable that there appears to be a lukewarm level of support,” said Moe Vela, a Hispanic lawyer and political adviser who worked for Biden in the Obama administration.
What’s going on: Trump’s push for a U.S.-Mexico border wall and hardline immigration policies make him unpopular with many Hispanic voters.
- But he has successfully courted evangelicals, those who are a generation removed from immigration,and those of Cuban and Venezuelan descent who respond to an anti-socialism message.