At the outset of this election, it seemed hard to imagine that any Republican would manage to so underperform among Latino voters that he would push his losses beyond the 44-point spread (27 to 71 percent) by which Mitt Romney lost to President Obama in 2012. But Donald Trump is poised to do it! Lisa Mascaro writes:
Not only are Latino voters set for record turnout this election, but a new poll Sunday shows Latino support for Donald Trump may be lower than for any Republican presidential candidate in more than 30 years.
Hillary Clinton has support from 76% of the Latino electorate, according to the Noticias Telemundo/Latino Decisions /NALEO Educational Fund poll.
That's a higher level of support than President Obama won in both of his elections. Latino Decisions' survey showed 75% of Latinos backed Obama in 2012. Exit polling put his support at 71%.
The new survey found that just 14 percent of Latino voters backed Trump. If that were to hold in exit polls, it would solidify an epic downward trend among Latino support for Republicans (Bush, 44 percent; McCain, 31 percent; Romney, 27 percent; and potentially, Trump, 14 percent).
This election will be determined by who turns out the most voters. You can secure Democratic victories by volunteering to make calls to swing state voters with MoveOn. Click here to sign up.
Exit data compiled by the Pew Hispanic Center shows no Republican candidate faring worse with Latinos in presidential elections dating to 1980.
Remember that moment a couple months ago when the media was obsessing over Clinton's "soft support" among Latinos? Latino Decisions told us that was absolute garbage then, and the polling outlet is proving to be spot on in that assessment.
It's totally possible that Latino voters will transform this election. Not only might they vote for Hillary at record rates, their turnout rate, which has hovered just below 50 percent in recent presidential elections, is likely to be off the charts.