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SALT LAKE CITY — Latinos nationwide favor Vice President Kamala Harris over former President Donald Trump in the U.S. presidential race and say economic issues top the list of their concerns, according to recent polling.
Results of a Pew Research Center survey released Tuesday show that Latino registered voters favor Harris, a Democrat, over Trump, a Republican, by a 57% to 39% margin. That's a contrast to polling from July, when President Joe Biden, then the Democratic hopeful, and Trump both garnered 36% support among Latinos surveyed. However, the newer numbers, from a survey conducted Aug. 26-Sept. 2, are on par with voting in the 2020 presidential race, when Latinos favored Biden over Trump by a 59%-38% split.
The numbers from Pew aren't far off polling by UnidosUS, a Hispanic advocacy group. UnidosUS polling, released Sept. 4 and based on surveys conducted from Aug. 5-23, show Latinos favored Harris over Trump by a 59%-31% split. Both organizations are based in Washington, D.C.
While leaning Democratic, the new poll numbers contrast with the even wider split from 2016 presidential voting, when Democrat Hillary Clinton mustered 66% of the Latino vote compared to 28% for Trump. Indeed, both Harris and Trump are courting the Latino vote and, while Utah leans Republican, the Washington Examiner notes the Latino bloc could have a big impact in voting in swing states like Arizona and Nevada, both with large Latino populations.
Likewise, Daniel Coronell, the president of Noticias Univision, the news arm of the Spanish-language TelevisaUnivision television and media company, noted what he said will be the influential role of Latino voters in announcing separate televised town hall gatherings in early October with Trump and Harris.
"There are more than 36 million Hispanics eligible to vote in the U.S., making them the largest minority in the country, with the power to influence the outcome of the race for the White House and the future of the nation," Coronell said.
In Utah in 2022, Latinos accounted for 5.2% of registered voters in the state but just 4.2% of actual voters that year, according to UnidosUS. Latinos represent 16% of the state's overall population as of 2023 estimates. By contrast, Latinos represented 11.2% of all registered voters nationwide in 2022 and 9.7% of actual voters.
The new Pew and UnidosUS surveys don't offer results specific to Utah. But a Deseret News/HarrisX poll in Utah in early August that included independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy showed Trump with the support of 51% among the total pool of those surveyed followed by 25% for Harris.
Economics, prices, inflation
On the issues, both the Pew and UnidosUS polling found that economic issues top the list of concerns for Latino voters. Pew said 85% of survey respondents cited the economy as the top concern among 10 issues put forward, including specifics like prices of food and consumer goods and the cost of housing. Next came health care, violent crime, gun policy and immigration.
The UnidosUS survey found that inflation, wages, housing and health care costs topped the list of concerns of the Latinos polled, followed by immigration and gun violence.
