Republicans are making an appeal to Hispanic voters in the final stretch of the midterm election, as Trump blitzes the country to boost his party.
The president is expected to make a second stop in a matter of weeks to the border state of Texas Wednesday.
It comes as the economy and immigration enforcement weigh on some Hispanic voters, but republicans maintain confidence in support.
“I loved you for many years before I ever decided to do this political thing, and you liked me from the beginning because the numbers are incredible, and I appreciate it,” Trump said during a Hispanic Heritage Month celebration at the White House last week.
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Republicans are urging Hispanic voters, as they are Trump’s supporters broadly, to turn out on Election Day, pointing to job growth, investments and tax cuts under the Trump administration.
“Sit this election out, and you could be left with socialist senators in Texas and Florida, and a government that looks less like the America your family helped build, and more like the communist dictatorships many Hispanic Americans fled,” RNC Chairman Joe Gruters wrote in an op-ed in Diario Las Americas.
While Trump increased support among Hispanic voters to 43 percent in 2024, significantly narrowing the lead Democrats held in 2016 and 2020, recent polls show an erosion in support for President Trump, though Trump has denied his support has dropped.
“My poll numbers are great,” Trump said recently when asked about a dip in approval.
More than two thirds of Latino voters disapprove of President Trump, according to a recent NBC News/Telemundo poll, which also found nearly a fifth who supported Trump in 2024 don’t prefer a republican controlled Congress.
A recent NYT/Sienna poll found of Hispanic respondents in battleground states, 61 percent would be more likely to vote Democratic and 31 percent Republican.
A Pew Research Center survey in April found of Hispanic voters that supported Trump in 2024, 66 percent approved of the job he was doing, a drop of more than 20 percent from the start of the term and a sharper drop than non-Hispanic voters who supported Trump in 2024.
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The economy is believed to be a major factor for Hispanic voters.
“We have talked to several Trump voters on the ground, Latino Trump voters, who, because the economy is so bad, because they feel like Trump hasn't focused on any of the priorities he said he was going to focus on. They are turning away from him, and they're willing to vote for Democrats” said Melissa Morales, the founder of Somos Votantes.
The group spent the first year of Trump’s second term polling Latino voters and then time canvassing in Wisconsin, Michigan, Arizona and Nevada.
But Morales says a turn away from Trump does not mean a vote for democrats.
“Movement away from Trump doesn't automatically translate into support for Democrats. So Democrats are going to have to down this final stretch really sell the positive economic vision that they have for the future to Latinos. If they can do that, we will see massive trends away from Trump and Republicans and over to Democrats,” she said.
Latino voters are believed to be a group that could decide the election, according to a democratic official, who believes those trending away from Trump could be a reason they believe Texas is in play.
While economic messaging is “critically important,” and the foremost issue, the official also pointed to immigration enforcement.
“People are done with the Trump Miller immigration agenda,” the official said, noting they believe voters are rejecting what happens in cities like they previously rejected what played out at the border.
Democrats are looking to garner more support. The DNC says it held thousands of conversations in battleground districts with 2020 voters who sat out in 2024. It says 86 percent are planning to vote this November, according to August findings release.
“Latino families are sick and tired of the skyrocketing cost of living — including gas, groceries, and healthcare — caused by Trump and Republicans in Congress. Furthermore, Trump’s cruel and reckless immigration policies have left communities traumatized, wrecked local economies, and violated people’s rights. This November, Latino voters across the country are going to reject the Republicans’ destructive agenda and vote for Democrats who will deliver for working families, lower costs, and defend our fundamental rights,” said DNC Spokesperson Angelo Fernández Hernández.
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Republicans have sought to paint a contrast.
“The only guarantee that we have that all the problems are going to be solved in the future is that we have to give President Trump the support he needs, both in the House and in the Senate. Democrats have not been able to show anything. They have not been able to put anything on the table that will help us solve the problems that we have: the economy, the prices, the gas, immigrate, even immigration, even the solution of the problems that some Latinos still have with immigration. Democrats have not shown anything in that direction. On the contrary, what they've been putting on the table, proposing is socialism, communism, and we as Latinos, you know, have we have seen that movie many times, and we don't want to see what we have seen in Venezuela and in Cuba and in Nicaragua and in Bolivia and other countries, we already know that,” said Jaime Florez, the RNC’s Hispanic outreach and communications director.
Florez remains confident in support.
“I feel more confident now than I felt in 24,” he said.
Florez dismisses polling as negative and points to coverage in Hispanic media of immigration enforcement.
“The same way that we cannot think that every immigrant, illegal immigrant, is a criminal, we cannot say that every ICE agent is an abusive person. So there are things that are happening. The way that those incidents have been shown in the Hispanic networks, is the way that people are, you know, reacting to,” Florez said, calling them “very limited cases.” “But on the other hand, during every campaign that had President Trump as a candidate, we have seen the polls shown him in a negative, very negative way.”
“They don't like to show President Trump winning in the polls, which is not necessarily bad for us because that makes our people go out and vote,” Florez added.
While Trump touted his support among Hispanic voters in 2024 he has also acknowledged difficulty in immigration policy.
“The hardest job because they'll say you're too tough or you're too soft. Get tougher, get softer. No matter what you do, it's always tough. But we have we've been very strong,” he said last week, touting border policies.
“We have to do what we have to do. We're getting murderers, drug dealers, rapists, people that have been really bad people for a long period of time. People with terrible records. People that came out of prisons. That's our first priority. We're getting them out, and we're getting them out fast, and we're getting them out. You see, in record numbers,” Trump said when pressed recently on the sentiment around his immigration and economic policies.
