Trump’s Latino gains were beyond my imagination: Navarrette

What factors drove Trump’s success with Latino voters, and how significant was their dissatisfaction with the Democratic platform? — Image credit: Getty Images

President-elect Donald Trump won 46% of the Latino vote, boosting his support among this demographic by double digits compared to 2020. He carried all seven battleground states, driven by strong Latino support in key states like Arizona, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Georgia.

Watch as Straight Arrow News contributor Ruben Navarrette breaks down the factors behind Trump’s success with Latino voters, including their dissatisfaction with the Democratic platform.

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The following is an excerpt from the above video:

This is my mea culpa. I didn’t see this coming for weeks. I’ve been predicting that Trump would do fairly well with Latinos. He might get as much as 40% of the Latino vote, I said, but 45% — that was beyond my imagination.

I should have known. Whenever Trump’s name is on the ballot, I underestimate his appeal to Latinos. He constantly improves his performance from what it was the time before.

In 2016, according to exit polls, Trump got 28% of the Latino vote. In 2020, he got 32%. And now in 2024, it’s up to 46%. Moreover, Trump did well with all the tribes that make up the 62 million Latinos who live in the United States. He won with Mexican Americans in South Texas, with Puerto Ricans in eastern Pennsylvania, and with Cuban Americans in South Florida.

How did this happen? Why did this happen? Well, there are three reasons.

One, Latinos are tired of being ignored and taken for granted by Democrats who think they can simply scare us away from voting for Republicans while putting in minimal effort to keep us in their camp. Two, we don’t like racism and nativism. That’s true, but there’s another -ism that we’re also not too crazy about. That’s elitism. We’re tired of feeling looked down upon by the Democratic Party and liberal media pundits. And three, we care about issues beyond immigration.

It in the 2024 presidential election, one message came through loud and clear above all others, Latino voters are sick and tired of what Democrats are offering or not offering, and we’re not going to take it anymore. We’re fed up with being told we have to vote for Democrats, even though they’re out of step with us, because Republicans are so awful, no argument on that last part, by the way. Over the years, this defeatist philosophy may actually have backfired and made Democrats worse and even more out of step with America’s largest minority, which now constitutes about a 10th of the electorate.

After all, if you think you have no competition for these voters? Well, then you may think you can coast and not put in much effort. It

wasn’t that long ago that Latinos were a dependable part of the Democratic base. In the 1990s we turned out in large numbers for Bill Clinton, giving him 73% of our votes in his 1996 re election bid. In the 2000s a sizable chunk of us defected to the GOP just long enough to vote for George W Bush, who got 44% of Latino vote in his 2004 re election for the next 20 years. That was the high water mark for Latino support for a Republican running for president, 44%

no longer in this year’s election. President Elect Donald Trump got a whopping 46% of Latino vote. He got the support of 55% of Latino men, beating Kamala Harris by 10 points with that demographic overall, Trump increased his support among Latinos by double digits compared to his showing in 2020

he carried all seven battleground states, and he did that on the strength of Latino support in states like Arizona, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Georgia.

This is my MEA. Copa, I didn’t see this coming for weeks. I’ve been predicting that Trump would do fairly well with Latinos. He might get as much as 40% of Latino vote, I said, But 45% that was beyond my imagination. I should have known whenever Trump’s name is on the ballot, I underestimate his appeal to Latinos. He constantly improves his performance from what it was the time before.

In 2016 according to exit polls, Trump got 28% of the Latino vote. In 2020 he got 32%

and now in 2024 it’s up to 46%

Moreover, Trump did well with all the tribes that make up the 62 million Latinos who live in the United States. He won with Mexican Americans in South Texas, with Puerto Ricans in eastern Pennsylvania, and with Cuban Americans in South Florida. How did this happen? Why did this happen? Well, there are three reasons. One, Latinos are tired of being ignored and taken for granted by Democrats who think they can simply scare us away from voting for Republicans while putting in minimal effort to keep us in their camp.

Two, we don’t like racism and nativism. That’s true, but there’s another ism that we’re also not too crazy about. That’s elitism. We’re tired of feeling looked down upon by the Democratic Party and liberal media pundits and three we care about issues beyond immigration. According to CNN exit polls, 66% of Latinos who voted for Trump said the economy was their top issue. Immigration was far down on the list, by the way, in light of all the love that Latinos are showing Trump and showed him in this election, Republicans should seriously rethink the ugly threat they so callously threw around during the campaign. Trump liked to rev up white people in his audience by telling them he was going to deport scores of brown people. Now I have to think, is that really wise. A better plan would be to get all those folks naturalized as US citizens, get them voting, and then get them into the Republican tent for the next 20 years. If Republicans are itching to deport someone, might I suggest they take a good look at purging their party as some of the more extreme Maga folks, like the January 6 rioters, you know the racist the Nativists, the anti Semites, there you have it. There’s a real basket of deportables. You.