Donald Trump's repeated remarks that undocumented immigrants are "poisoning the blood of our country" hasn't seemed to have had much of an effect in the Latino community in general.
Two different polls have already shown him even overtaking Biden as the 2024 elections get closer, a stark contrast with previous elections in which the demographic consistently sided with the Democrats.
However, a new report by Axios shows that there is a sector within the community that could rethink its historical support of conservative candidates as a result of the remarks: Latino evangelicals.
The outlet notes that Latino evangelicals are one of the fastest-growing sectors of the population and have helped shift some recent close elections from Democrats to Republicans.
Rev. Samuel Rodríguez Jr., head of the influential National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference, told Axios that "Latino evangelicals support border security but will not put up with racism."
"Any candidate, be Donald Trump or others, who engages in rhetoric that paints the immigrant community with one blanket slate will do so at their peril," added Rodríguez, who warned that continued rhetoric of the kind could open the door to stronger challenges from other candidates such as former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley.
Trump has used the "poisoning our blood" phrase in different occasions on the campaign trail, leading to comparisons with language used by Adolf Hitler in his book "Mein Kampf."
"They let — I think the real number is 15, 16 million people into our country. When they do that, we got a lot of work to do. They're poisoning the blood of our country," he said in late December in New Hampshire.
The Biden re-election campaign, on its end, compared the statements to language used by Hitler, considering he had also used the term "blood poisoning" in "Mein Kampf."
"(Trump) channeled his role models as he parroted Adolf Hitler, praised Kim Jong Un, and quoted Vladimir Putin while running for president on a promise to rule as a dictator and threaten American democracy," said Biden campaign spokesperson Ammar Moussa during the weekend.
According to Axios, Latino evangelicals overwhelmingly vote Republican, but are more moderate than Whites on race, immigration, and the economy, something that could potentially draw them away from Trump.
However, overall figures are moving towards Trump, rather than against. The latest poll covering Latinos, conducted by USA TODAY/Suffolk University, showed Biden trailing Trump 39-34% with this demographic. The study highlights that in 2020 he had received 65% of the support, compared to Trump's 32%.
Another survey from late December, from CNBC All-America, had Trump with a 5-point lead over current Biden, the first time the former President was ahead in such a poll over his likely competitor in next year's elections. The same poll from two months before had Biden with a 7-point lead.
The survey added that Biden's performance with Latino voters is not just lagging relative to Trump — "it is trending downward overall." "In December 28% of Latino adults approved of Biden as president, down from 35% in October," says the study.
The former President has been steadily gaining support with the Latino electorate during the past decade, increasing from 28% in 2016 to 36% in 2020, according to the Pew Research Center. In 2022, Republicans got 39 percent of the Latino vote, the highest percentage since 2004.
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