TelevisaUnivision CEO Daniel Alegre has attributed Donald Trump's improved performance among Latino voters in the 2024 election to a strategic focus on economic issues and direct engagement with Latino communities. To back his claim, he cited internal data from the network indicating that Latino voters, historically more aligned with Democrats, are increasingly prioritizing issue-based voting over party affiliation.
Alegre went as far as to pinpoint the exact moment he believes the shift towards Republicans actually happened: November 2023. Back then, months before becoming the official candidate for the party, Trump appeared on Univision in an interview with Televisa anchor Enrique Acevedo, setting the tone for his upcoming campaign.
"We hadn't seen a Republican presidential candidate on our network for over a decade until Donald Trump appeared last November, " said Alegre as quoted by Newsweek. "That was a significant moment, signaling to the community that they mattered," Alegre said.
Alegre added that "showing up in Spanish-language media, taking tough questions, and engaging directly resonates deeply with the community," as it shows the campaign thinks "it's not just about placing ads in English-language media."
During another passage of the interview, Acevedo highlighted a New York Times/Siena poll which showed Trump with 42% Latino support across six battleground states. Trump responded with enthusiasm and praise, a stark contrast from his previous rhetoric:
"I call Hispanic, Latino, you have lots of different terms. But it all means the same thing as far as I'm concerned. It's, they're just great people, incredible people"
Univision also hosted Latino-focused town halls with Trump and Democratic candidate Kamala Harris just weeks before the elections, with Trump's messaging afterward focused sharply on economic concerns and border security, bolstered by hyper-targeted advertisements in key states.
However, just days after Trump's town hall, Ex Univision president Joaquín Blaya blasted his former network for how they treated the Republican candidate, citing a "lack of integrity" in allowing Trump to speak uninterrupted without fact-checking and labelling the whole event "an infomercial in where they brought in audience as props."
According to Pew Research Center data, Trump achieved a historic milestone, securing 46% of the Latino vote, a 14-point increase from 2020. This shift was particularly pronounced among Latino men and younger voters, groups that trended more Republican in 2024.
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