Latino Lens Study Confirms Our Complexities

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Last week, The Latino Newsletter received the findings of a detailed Latino Lens survey conducted in June by Global Strategy Group (GSG). The survey gathered the responses of 700 Latino registered voters nationwide. The data, according to the survey, was “intended to take the temperature of Hispanic and Latino Americans on political issues, social attitudes, and voting behavior.”

Some of the key takeaways included the following:

• “Hispanic voters’ assessment of the U.S. economy and their local economy are negative. 7 in 10 rate the national economy negatively; and women in particular are dissatisfied with the state of the national and local economies.”

• “Hispanics’ ideal government is one that values personal freedoms, rights, and is transparent and free of corruption.”

• “Despite underlying concerns around socialism, Hispanic voters prefer a candidate who wants to lower taxes for the middle-class and make corporations pay their fair share over a candidate who is focused keeping socialism out for the U.S. Moreso, majority of voters are concerned that the Republican Party will go too far in cutting important programs and services like education, Medicare, and Social Security.”

• “Super majorities of Hispanics believe abortions should be legal and a protected right in the U.S., including a majority of Catholics and Protestants alike.”

Last week, we reached out to GSG Vice President Rosa Mendoza about the study. The former Chief Analytics Officer for the 2020 Kamala Harris campaign, Mendoza shared her insights about what stood out in the survey. The GSG Political group, according to its Twitter profile, “is a diverse team of strategists passionate about advancing progressive causes and helping Democrats win.”

The Latino Newsletter: Compared to previous studies about U.S. Latino communities, is this study similar or different? How and why is it?

Rosa Mendoza: Unlike other research which focuses on voters likely to participate in the upcoming election, we envisioned the Latino Lens report to provide a snapshot of the views Hispanic/Latino registered voters across the nation have. Centering it on registered voters allows us to, in future reports, track the perspective Hispanic/Latinos have and note potential shifts. Seeing as the focus is not on the upcoming election, we were also able to focus on top-of-mind issues and the ways in which all Hispanic/Latino voters perceive them, including the economy, government and abortion.

TLN: There is a lot of difference in this study between older and younger Latinos. What you attribute that to and what do you think it means?

RM: A lot of the divergence in attitudes among older and younger Hispanics/Latinos in this study was centered around economic and socialism concerns. While all Hispanics/Latinos’ economic concerns are centered on inflation, we found that older Latinos are more concerned about things like utility costs and the economic conditions for people on fixed incomes, while younger voters were more concerned with rent prices, gas prices, and higher education costs. 

In our government section, while a majority of Hispanic/Latinos are concerned the U.S. is moving towards socialism, the total share and intensity in concern is higher among older voters (Under 45: 24% very concerned / 47% concerned. Over 45: 36% very concerned / 53% concerned). This could be a reflection of older Latinos having closer connections to countries that have lived with socialism, or direct experience with a socialist government.

This distinction is even more clear when we asked about communist governments. While Latino voters under 45 have highly negative sentiments toward communism (-34% net sentiment), Latino voters over 45 especially detest communism (-77% net sentiment).

TLN: If there is one thing that surprised you about this poll, what was it and why?

While Latino voters have been broadly supportive of abortion rights in most polling, some of our findings around abortion rights in this survey really stood out. Three-in-five voters surveyed believe abortion should be legal in all or most cases, and that includes 42% of Republican Latino voters and 67% of Catholic Latino voters. This discounts the notion that this issue should not be spoken about with Hispanic/Latino voters. Particularly seeing as 78% say it’s an important issue as they head into the ballot box this November.

The complete survey is here.

New Latino Swing State Poll Shows Gains for Harris

As first reported Monday morning by Greg Sargent of The New Republic, a new Somos Votantes poll of Latinos in battleground states is showing gains for Harris over Donald Trump.

According to the Somos Votantes release, “Vice President Harris is popular with Latinos, with a +25 overall favorability rating (58-33), reflecting a higher favorability ceiling for a Democratic Presidential Nominee than previous polls with room for even more growth seen in in-poll movement. Additionally, the Vice President’s net popularity is 40% higher than Trump, who has a -16 favorability rating (39-55).”

The entire poll is here.

Somos Votantes is an organization that promotes most Latino voter participation for Democratic candidates.

Remembering the 2019 El Paso Massacre

This past weekend was the fifth anniversary of the El Paso Massacre.

Here are two stories we recommend about the anniversary:

From Suzanne Gamboa of NBC Latino:

From Sofia Sierra for the Texas Tribune (via El Paso Matters):

Then there is this from El Paso journalist Bob Moore.

Independent Journalist Says She Was Censored

In a Sunday Instagram post, Puerto Rican journalist Bianca Graulau said her two months of reporting about tourism in Oaxaca was being censored.

biancagraulau

View more on Instagram

On Monday, Graulau also took to Twitter about her story:

Here is the report she filed on YouTube:

Editor’s Note: You may have noticed that we are running a sponsor today. Part of our strategy is to accept selected advertisement opportunities so our subscribers (615 as of today) can receive The Latino Newsletter for free and with no paywalls. Full disclosure: Any clicks to advertisers will earn us revenue. It’s not a lot, but it helps pay some bills.

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