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Senator JD Vance is in Phoenix today as former president Donald Trump tries to flip the state back into his column this November.
The Ohio senator heads to Arizona as Vice President Kamala Harris and her running mate Minnesota Governor Tim Walz make a serious play for the state — and for Latino voters as a demographic.
But a new survey has found that Latino voters in Arizona and other battleground states do not like Vance, at all.
On Wednesday, BSP Research released a survey with UnidosUS, a Latino advocacy nonprofit, that surveyed voters of Latin American descent. The survey included 3,000 eligible voters — 2,800 of whom were registered and 200 who were not registered — with oversamples in Georgia, California, Arizona, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Florida and Texas.
The survey, which was conducted through August, showed that a combined 48 percent of Latinos have either a somewhat or very unfavorable view of Vance. Only a combined 26 percent of Latinos have either a somewhat favorable or very favorable opinion of Trump’s running mate.
Conversely, a combined 48 percent of Latinos have a favorable opinion of Walz, while only 22 percent of Latinos have an unfavorable opinion of the Minnesota governor.
The survey did not include questions about Latinos’ opinions of Harris or Trump, though it showed that 55 percent of Latinos approve of the job Harris is doing.
The survey also showed that 52 percent of Latinos will either definitely or probably vote for Harris and Walz.
Throughout Trump’s campaign, he has spoken about the need for mass deportations of people who emigrated to the United States illegally. Vance has echoed similar views on immigration in the past.
But the recent survey showed that only 14 percent of Latinos think deporting all undocumented migrants is the most important issue for elected officials to address regarding immigration. Instead, 36 percent of Hispanic respondents said they support increasing border security; 50 percent support providing a path to citizenship for people brought to the country as children; 49 percent support cracking down on human smugglers and drug traffickers; and 20 percent support finishing the wall on the US-Mexico border.
Vance has previously campaigned in Cochise County, Arizona and has also campaigned in the heavily Latino Nevada.
