Hillary Clinton is trouncing Donald Trump among Latino voters, 70-19 percent, in a new poll released Friday by polling outfit Latino Decisions and the immigration advocacy group America's Voice. That puts Trump "on track for an historically low performance" with Latino voters, according to an America's Voice press release.
While Clinton's Latino support very much mirrors that of President Obama in 2012 (71 percent), Trump's 19 percent showing is already underperforming Romney's 27 percent take by 8 points. And this poll ended on August 30, the day before Trump delivered his anti-immigrant rant in Phoenix. Latino Decisions projected last year that the GOP nominee would have to win somewhere between 42-47 percent of the vote to win the presidency.
But perhaps the most interesting part of the poll was the number of respondents who indicated they were engaged with the election: 83 percent said they were “absolutely certain” to vote in November. Lisa Mascaro writes:
Nearly eight in 10 Latinos are following election news several times a week, and 58% are talking about it with their family and friends, the poll said.
Immigration is second only to jobs/economy as the top issue Latinos believe the new president should address. Along with deportations, it is the top issue Latinos say is facing their community.
Three-fourths of Latinos say it is more important to vote this year than in 2012, mainly to stop Trump and to support Clinton.
Latino Decisions is really the gold standard of Latino polling since most outfits either don't know how to poll Latino voters or simply produce sample sizes too small to analyze. So hold on to your hats folks because next Friday the group will be releasing swing state polls from Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Nevada, North Carolina, and Virginia. Fun!