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It is week 110 of The Latino Newsletter, and we continue to follow our summer publishing schedule of three posts per week: Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. Before I share today’s post, I wanted to let our readers and followers know that we dropped another episode of American Colony earlier this week — one that I am really proud of because producer Alana Schreiber created a beautiful episode that I got to narrate about the history of the Negro Leagues in Puerto Rico.
And speaking of American Colony… here is today’s story.
A new poll released Wednesday, commissioned by the Puerto Rico Statehood Council and conducted by McLaughlin & Associates, finds that 68% of Latino likely voters nationwide support statehood for Puerto Rico, and 56% say they are more likely to vote for congressional candidates who support making the island a state.
The survey polled 1,000 Latino voters nationally, with an oversample of 409 Puerto Ricans living on the U.S. mainland, for a total of 600 Puerto Rican respondents. It was conducted online between June 5 and June 16, 2026. The margin of error is +/- 3.1% for the full Hispanic sample and +/- 4.0% for the Puerto Rican subsample.
Among Puerto Rican respondents specifically, support for statehood rises to 71%, and 67% say they would be more likely to vote for a candidate who backs it. When respondents were presented with pro-statehood messaging — including Puerto Rico’s role in U.S. manufacturing and its rate of military service — support increased to 75% among all Latinos and 79% among Puerto Ricans. Candidate support after messaging rose to 67% and 76%, respectively.
Notably, the poll also tested hypothetical statehood for Cuba and Venezuela and found both were net negative among the same respondents. Only 38% of all Latinos and 40% of Puerto Ricans approved of Cuba statehood, while just 32% and 35%, respectively, approved of Venezuela statehood. Puerto Rico was the only one of the three to draw majority support, underscoring that the enthusiasm is specific to Puerto Rico rather than a general openness to expanding U.S. territory.
The poll also found that 52% of all Latino respondents and 63% of Puerto Rican respondents believe statehood would help the U.S. economy.
“Historically, midterm elections present a distinct challenge for the party in power, and as we saw in the 2024 elections, Hispanic voters will likely be instrumental in determining which party controls the U.S. House of Representatives in 2027 and beyond,” said John McLaughlin, CEO and partner of McLaughlin & Associates. “The most surprising results from this poll were not only that 68% of Hispanic likely voters support statehood for Puerto Rico but also that 56% of all Hispanic likely voters are more likely to vote for a candidate for Congress who expresses support for statehood.”
Cost of living ranked as the top concern among both groups. Sixty-four percent of all Latino respondents and 65% of Puerto Rican respondents identified themselves as economic-issue voters, with inflation and the cost of living cited as the top priority by 38% of all Latinos and 41% of Puerto Ricans. Housing and groceries were named as the two biggest monthly cost burdens by both groups.
“Today’s polling confirms that it is a political winner for Republicans and Democrats to both support statehood for Puerto Rico,” said José Fuentes-Agostini, former Puerto Rico attorney general and chairman of the Puerto Rico Statehood Council. “Statewide and swing district politicians running in Florida, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Georgia, North Carolina, Texas, and Ohio should take note of [Wednesday’s] results.”
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What We’re Reading
Abolish ICE: From my latest opinion for MS NOW, “In truth, suspending the stops wouldn’t have brought back Lorenzo Salgado Araujo and Johan Sebastián Guerrero, the two Latino fathers killed by ICE agents during separate stops in a span of a week. They are two more victims of an administration that has terrorized immigrant communities relentlessly. The real issue isn’t whether the traffic stops are now ending or continuing — it’s that ICE agents are never held accountable for killing people.
As I have written in the past, ICE operates this way because we as a country have allowed it to happen. ICE is now the country’s largest-funded enforcement agency. Just last month, Congress passed $70 billion more in funding. Nothing will change until ICE is abolished.”
Julio Ricardo Varela is the founder of The Latino Newsletter. He is also its current part-time publisher and executive director. He edited and published this edition.
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