Hispanics Back Democrats in Midterms

Continuing a recent trend, Latino voters lean heavily toward the Democratic Party in the midterm elections. Nearly two-thirds of Latinos (65%) plan to back the Democrat in their local congressional election, while just 22% support the Democratic candidate. By contrast, the overall electorate is far more divided this year, if not tilting Republican. In 2008, Hispanics backed Barack Obama over John McCain by a 67%-31% margin, and in 2006, 69% of Hispanics backed Democratic candidates for Congress. But strong support for Democrats may not matter much if Latinos do not turn out to vote. Just one-third (32%) of registered Latino voters have given this year’s election “quite a lot” of thought, compared with 50% of all registered voters. Latino voters are also much less likely to say they are certain to vote than are all registered voters. Read More