29 Apr Poll Shows Drop in Trump Approval Ratings Among Latino Voters

Voters fill out their ballots in Stockton on Nov. 8, 2022. (Harika Maddala / Bay City News / Catchlight Local)

By Ruth Dusseault
Bay City News

The Latino voters that famously tipped the scale for candidate Trump in the 2024 election have started to pull away their support.

That’s according to a new national poll on Latino voter sentiment following Trump’s first 100 days. Two nonprofits, the Voto Latino Foundation and San Francisco’s Latino Community Foundation, asked a geographically diverse group of 1,000 Latino voters who participated in the 2024 election about the economy, immigration and their general emotions. Of those surveyed, 52% identified as Democrats, 36% as Republicans and the remaining identified as Independents.

Trump’s national favorability rating is 39%, down seven points from a CNN exit poll during the election, when he received a 46% favorability rating, the study found.

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“The honeymoon period for Trump is very much coming to an end with Latino voters,” said Elizabeth Sena of GQR Insights, the professional polling company that conducted the survey on behalf of the nonprofits.

Trump is deepest underwater in the central part of the country, the Midwest, where his unfavorable rating was as high as 69%, said Sena.

“Where we see he is doing the best is in the South. He reaches 45% approval there,” she said.

Most Latino voters believe Trump has gone too far on the immigration issue, including 87% of those that voted for him. Forty-four percent — over two in five Latino voters — are worried someone close to them will be deported.

The survey shows that Latino voters are worried, angry and afraid. Two-thirds of all respondents picked inflation and the cost of living as the top issue, with 54% disapproving of the job that Trump is doing on those issues.

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“A majority, 59% feel that the U.S. economy is getting worse,” said Sena. “That breaks down to 73% of independent Latino voters, 78% of young women and 64% of young men. Only 22% feel the economy is getting better. Forty-three percent say that their personal finances for themselves and their family are getting worse.”

“These issues around the cost of living, inflation, health care, especially housing are the major issues facing the Latino community in the Bay Area at large,” said Christian Arana, with San Francisco’s Latino Community Foundation.

“In the farmworker communities across the state, across the country, there’s still a significant number that remain undocumented,” Arana said, referring to the Trump administration’s effort to find people who may not have legal status and deport them.

“As the conversation around deportations increase, you’re just going to see people not show up to work, not show up to school, maybe not go to important hospital or clinic visits,” said Arana. “It’s really having a chilling effect on the community. It’s something of deep concern.”

Overall, 63% of Latino voters feel that Trump has gone too far in trying to stop illegal immigration and deport undocumented migrants. Even 28% of Trump voters feel that he has gone too far. The survey asked a question about the case of the administration mistakenly deporting a migrant and father with protective status to a prison in El Salvador.

“Seventy-two percent said that they were concerned about that action,” said Sena. “With 56% being very concerned.”

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Younger Latina women are the category most concerned about Trump’s deportation policies. Over a third of total respondents are worried, with 45% of them are women and 51% of those are under the age of 35. Out of the other emotions women are feeling towards the administration’s first 100 days, 19% are fearful, 16% are angry and 15% feel things are losing control.

Sena said the survey included questions about people’s general feelings, and the dominant emotion is worried.

“Twenty-three percent of women under 35 feel hopelessness,” she said.

Twelve percent of respondents said they personally know someone who has been deported in the last two months. Over two in five Latino voters are worried that somebody close to them is going to be deported, according to the survey.

“Sixty-six percent say that they are worried about the safety of themselves and of others,” she said. “And these numbers are so high that you have a large majority, regardless of gender, regardless of age, regardless the country of birth.”

Sixty-eight percent over all respondents say they are overwhelmed and feeling burnt out about all the things that are going on in the world.

One question was about a proposed path to citizenship. After a period of 10 years, an immigrant would be allowed to apply for citizenship if they have not committed any crimes and paid their taxes.

“There’s overwhelming support for this. Whether you are a Latino who identified as a Democrat, an independent, or a Republican,” Sena said.

“Coming out of the 2024 election, many people wondered what happened to the Latino community,” said Julian Castro, chief executive officer of the Latino Community Foundation and former Obama cabinet member.

“There seemed to be a shift to some extent to the right, and many have wondered since Trump took office, what are Latinos thinking about all these policy changes? I think it’s fair to say that many Latinas and Latinos are feeling a tremendous amount of anxiety and concern about the economy and their standing in their communities. Especially for immigrant families and mixed status families, of whom there are millions in the Latino community in this country, oftentimes a sense of fear.”

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