Donald Trump appears poised to make history among Latino voters, but probably not in the way he’d like. The Republican nominee’s net favorability rating among those voters is negative 53 points, according to a new poll by America’s Voice, an immigration reform advocacy group.
Hillary Clinton’s net favorability rating is plus-39.
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The survey was actually conducted before Trump’s controversial meeting with Mexican president Enrique Peña Nieto and subsequent anti-immigration speech that had even some of Trump’s Latino surrogates withdrawing their support. “I am so sorry, but I believe Mr. Trump lost the election tonight,” Texas pastor Ramiro Pena said Wednesday. “[Trump’s] National Hispanic Advisory Council seems to be simply for optics, and I do not have the time or energy for a scam.”
The poll found that Latino voters favor Hillary Clinton, 70 percent to 19 percent. Republican Mitt Romney did slightly better than that against President Barack Obama in 2012, losing Latinos 75 percent to 23 percent, according to a poll by Latino Decisions 2012.
Trump’s favorability rating is underwater, with 74 percent of Latinos holding an unfavorable view of the candidate and 67 percent holding a “very unfavorable” view. Clinton has a positive favorability rating at 68 percent.
“It’s so disappointing because we feel we took a chance, a very risky chance,” said Alfonso Aguilar, the president of the Latino Partnership for Conservative Principles. “We thought we were moving in the right direction… we’re disappointed. We feel misled.”
The survey also found that a majority of Latino voters feel more enthusiastic about this year’s election than they did in 2012, the primary reason being that they want to see Trump defeated. Fifty-one percent said the reason this election matters to them is to “stop Trump,” while only 23 percent said it was to support Clinton.
The poll also found that the Republican Party as a whole, which according to a so-called autopsy it conducted after Romney’s 2012 defeat was supposed to get to work on winning over Latinos, has taken a big hit. Seventy-three percent of Latinos say the GOP doesn’t care or is hostile to them, while just 21 percent say the party “truly cares.”
Follow Brendan James on Twitter: @deep_beige
