With less than two months to go to the general elections, both candidates, Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump seek to gather as much support from key demographics. Although the race continues to be historically close, Latinos are overwhelmingly showing their support for Harris, widening her gap with the former President among the demographic in battleground states.
The report comes from a recently published study by UnidosUS, the biggest Latino advocacy group in the U.S. Through English and Spanish interviews, the organization sampled 3,000 Latino eligible voters across the country between Aug. 5-23, with oversamples in Latino-heavy states like Arizona, California, Georgia, Nevada, Florida, Texas, North Carolina and Pennsylvania.
The survey found that Harris holds a 27 percentage point lead over the former President across the country, currently standing at 59% to 31%.
In key battleground states, these figures are similar, despite overall polling between the two candidates being virtually tied. In these decisive states, Harris also holds a comfortable lead, with a 29 percentage point margin in Arizona, 31 points in Georgia, 23 in Nevada, 29 in North Carolina and 35 in Pennsylvania.
The Vice President also holds an advantage with other Latino groups. Among Latino independents voters, she sees a lead of 8 percentage points compared to the former President. Likewise, among women and younger voters (ages 18-29), the Democratic nominee stands at a wide margin of 36 and 19 percentage points respectively.
When it comes to the issues that are most important to these electorates, pocketbook concerns continue to top the list. In fact, the top 5 priorities for these voters fall in this category: inflation and the rising cost of living stand at 59% of voters' top priorities, jobs and the economy at 39%, lack of affordable housing and high rents at 31% and health care at 25%.
But while other prominent issues, like immigration, are not necessarily at the very top of Latino' minds, they continue to permeate these voters' election cycle. In fact, Latino voters in this survey strongly favored a path to citizenship for long-residing undocumented immigrants and Dreamers.
With respect to immigration enforcement, the priority for respondents is cracking down on human smugglers and drug traffickers, while mass deportation— one of Trump's proposed plans for a second term— received minimal support.
Another issue that has taken the spotlight ahead of November is reproductive rights, which Latinos seem to support to some extent. In fact, 71% of Latinos oppose making it illegal or taking that decision away from others, no matter their own personal beliefs on the issue.
Despite support and their priorities, more than a quarter of Latino voters do not see either Democrats or Republicans as a champion of their concerns, with 28% saying neither, both, or don't know which party would be better at addressing their priority issues. Democrats, however, hold an advantage in this question.
The results of the UnidosUS poll come as election season ramps up. Last week, for example, the two candidates met for the first time for a presidential debate, which viewers largely agree the Vice President won. Similarly, on Sunday, a second assassination attempt against Trump seemingly took place at his Florida Golf Course in West Palm Beach, Florida.
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