Sarah Westwood of the Washington Examiner reports on a growing challenge for the Democratic Party’s electoral prospects.
Hispanic voters are rapidly reevaluating their relationship with the Democratic Party, creating a problem for Democrats that, in some ways, mirrors their struggle to retain working-class voters.
A Quinnipiac poll published last week found that Hispanic voters disapproved of President Joe Biden’s job performance more than any other racial group, with just 12% of Hispanics saying they “approve strongly” of how he is handling the office.
It followed a string of surveys showing Latino voters souring over the past year on both Biden specifically and on Democrats generally: By December of last year, less than a year into Biden’s presidency, a Wall Street Journal poll found that Hispanic voters were evenly split on whether they would vote for a Republican or a Democrat in the next election.
Democrats have similarly hemorrhaged the support of less-educated, working-class voters over the past several cycles as far-left liberals have steered the party’s attention toward polarizing social and cultural issues and away from kitchen-table issues that, against the backdrop of inflation and economic uncertainty, have eclipsed virtually everything else Democratic voters typically prioritize.
“I think the single biggest reason is inflation,” Brad Bannon, a Democratic strategist, told the Washington Examiner when asked why Latino voters are shifting rightward. “Hispanic Americans are not happy because their income is not keeping up with inflation.”
He added, “Hispanic Americans have the same economic concerns that other Americans have, and it’s a big problem.”
The Wall Street Journal December poll found that while Hispanic voters were split on which party they would back if an election were held today, with a significant number undecided, a majority of them saw Republicans in Congress as more capable of tackling inflation and securing the border.
