Democrats Lose Ground to Republicans Among Latino Voters Ahead of Midterms, Polls Reveal

Democrats are losing ground to Republicans among Latino voters ahead of the 2022 midterm elections, getting cut by half, polls reveal.

The shrinking advantage of the left comes after nearly a decade with 54% of Latino voters being surveyed recently saying they preferred Democrats being in charge of Congress. This is compared with 33% who said that they much rather liked Republicans in that position.

Political Latino Support

That difference in poll numbers, which shows 21 points, is only half of what was seen in October 2012, when there was a 42-point difference between Democrats and Republicans. The results of the poll come after GOP members made gains with Latino voters in the 2020 election.

Republicans have also put forth a slate of Latino House candidates in the upcoming 2022 midterm elections. The question of preference in party had moved steadily in the last 10 years, with a 26-point gap in October 2020, a 34-point gap in November 2018, and a 38-point gap in October 2016.

Furthermore, United States President Joe Biden's approval rating in the latest NBC News/Telemundo poll was 51% while his disapproval rating was 45%. The poll found that Latina women, as well as Catholic Latinos and older Latinos, were generally more supportive of the Democratic leader, as per Politico.

Most of the voters who were surveyed said that they disapproved of the Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade in June, which supported abortion rights. However, opinion regarding that decision varied widely by party, with more Democrats signaling disapproval than Republicans, 75% to 22%.

This comes as the majority of Latino evangelical Christian voters said that they approved of the Supreme Court's decision that ended the constitutional right to an abortion. The numbers come as most Latino Catholic voters disapproved of the decision.

According to Fox News, Aileen Cardona-Arroyo, who assisted in conducting the survey, said that while Latinos continue to lean toward the Democratic Party and prefer Democrats, Republicans have a higher share of the vote than what was previously measured.

Democrats and Republicans

Furthermore, the poll showed that Latino voters preferred Republicans over Democrats in their handling of the country's economy, border security, and crime. On the other hand, Latino voters prefer the left in their handling of abortion, addressing concerns of the Hispanic community, and "protecting democracy."

The poll comes as a Pew Research Center study found that Latinos see Democrats' and Republicans' different stances on overall legislation. The results of the study, which were released on Thursday, showed that 36% of the 3,029 Hispanics surveyed from Aug. 1 to Aug. 14, said that there is a fair amount of difference between the two parties and another 16% said that there was hardly any difference at all.

Under half of the respondents, 45%, said that there was a "great deal of difference" between the parties. The results of the survey come with only six weeks left before the midterm elections as Republicans hope to gain more support from the Hispanic community than they did in 2020, NBC News reported.