A new survey from the Pew Hispanic Center shows that Latinos -- an increasingly significant voting group -- "widely" favor Obama.
Although Latinos strongly disapprove of President Obama’s immigration policies, which have brought high numbers of deportations, they would favor him by wide margins over a Republican candidate in the presidential race, according to a poll released on Wednesday by the Pew Hispanic Center, a nonpartisan research group in Washington.
The Pew poll is the first to put numbers on the growing discontent among Latinos with Mr. Obama’s immigration policies, which have led to nearly 400,000 deportations in each of the last three years. According to the poll, 59 percent of Latinos disapprove of the deportations; only 27 percent approve.
Yet if the election were held now, the poll suggests, Mr. Obama would win a matchup with Mitt Romney: 68 percent of Latino voters said they favor ... Obama; only 23 percent favored the former Massachusetts governor. In a hypothetical contest with Rick Perry, the governor of Texas, Mr. Obama would win 69 percent to 23 percent. ...NYT
It's not just Obama -- it's Democrats in general who get the Latino votes.
The survey also shows that identification with the Democratic Party among Hispanic registered voters remains strong. Two-thirds (67%) of Hispanic registered voters say they identify with or lean toward the Democratic Party, while 20% say the same about the Republican Party.
And when asked which party has more concern for Hispanics, 45% say it’s the Democratic Party, while 12% say it’s the Republican Party. ...Pew Hispanic Center
There has been a slight change since Obama was elected: "The share that identifies the Republican Party as the better party for Hispanics is up six percentage points since 2010."
This, however, makes the threats from South Carolina, Texas, Wisconsin and other Republican-run states more urgent. Attempts to redistrict minorities out of electoral significance continue among hard-line Republicans. The DOJ's efforts to curtail the use of anti-minority redistricting maps could well be overturned by Republican judges -- and justices.
