ICYMI: Voto Latino Co-Founder and President María Teresa Kumar Joins “Morning Joe” to Unveil the Largest Poll of Swing State Latino Voters - Voto Latino

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ICYMI: Voto Latino Co-Founder and President María Teresa Kumar Joins “Morning Joe” to Unveil the Largest Poll of Swing State Latino Voters

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
May 31, 2024
Contact: Diana Castaneda
VP of Communications
[email protected]

 

WATCH VIDEO

“It’s time to take Robert F. Kennedy Jr. seriously and talk to individuals to recognize that a vote for him is vote for Donald Trump”

In Case You Missed It: During an exclusive interview on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” Voto Latino (VL) Co-Founder and President María Teresa Kumar unveiled VL’s new polling conducted by the national polling firm GQR. This is the largest poll of swing state Latinos heading into the 2024 presidential election. The poll surveyed 2,000 registered Latino voters from five states – Arizona, North Carolina, Nevada, Texas, and Pennsylvania – from April 25 through May 7, 2024.

Voto Latino conducted this poll to determine whether Latino voters are shifting away from the Democratic party in advance of the 2024 elections. The results of the poll show that there’s no meaningful “rightward shift,” but there is a significant number of Latino voters who are seriously considering a third-party vote.

María Teresa Kumar addressed the poll’s findings, how Latino voters perceive Kennedy, their apparent lack of awareness of his policy positions, and the urgency with which campaigns should start communicating Kennedy’s extreme views and lack of a cohesive platform.

Key excerpts:

  • On Voto Latino’s polling results: “One of the reasons Voto Latino went into the field to conduct this extensive poll of over 2,000 Latino voters in key battleground states, was that we kept hearing the narrative Latinos were leaving the Democratic party and going to Trump. And that just didn’t make any sense, so we dug in deeper. And what we found was that while they are in support of Biden’s policies, they are not in support of his perceived handling of the  economy. As a result, we find that not only were people defecting and going to a third party, RFK being the principal one, but it was women/Latinas that were doing so.” 
  • On Latina voters’ perception of third-party candidates: “For folks between the ages of 18 to 49, of those who said they support a third-party, 62% were women. And that just speaks to not only the opportunity that both Biden and Harris have to talk about the issues that are bread and butter to the Latino community they care about. But also demonstrates the real frustration that the economy while for many people is doing well, for folks at the bottom, it is not. 
  • On the economy as a top issue for young Latino voters: “I’ll give you an example. When we polled 18 to 29-year-old Latino voters in Arizona and Nevada, over 35% of them said that they had signed for government assistance in the last year. Over 22% had signed up for a second job. These are indicators of people usually in their mid-30s often leading single households and this is not the case with young people between 18 and 29. So it’s going to be about the economy and how do you talk about it, to bring these voters back to the Democratic progressive movement.”
  • On the urgency for campaigns to define Kennedy: “The challenge is that no one really knows what Kennedy stands for. They have the brand of Kennedy that his family brings in social justice and believes in equity, but when you look at his record that is not the case. Now is the moment for the campaigns to define Kennedy and demonstrate he’s also an extremist right along the lines of Donald Trump. He is an anti vaxxer, he literally quoted had a visceral reaction to taking down confederate statues, and when you ask about abortion he keeps flip-flopping. If you ask about the economy he does not have an answer. He is an individual that has not been defined, but it is time to take him seriously and talk to individuals to recognize that a vote for him is a vote for Donald Trump.”

 

Voto Latino poll results:

  • In an allocated head-to-head matchup, Biden is leading Trump among swing state Latino voters by a robust 59% to 39%. This is within striking distance of Biden’s 2020 performance and shows no meaningful rise in Latino support for Trump, which contradicts the widespread narrative.
  • When our survey expands the field to include third party candidates Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Cornel West, and Jill Stein, Biden’s support among Latino voters drops to just 47%, with Trump falling slightly to 34% and Kennedy taking 12%. Stein gets 2%, West gets 3%, and there’s approximately 1% for “undecided.”
  • Biden has a net favorability of -7, Trump has a net favorability of -27, and Kennedy has a net favorability of -1. Overall, 35% have a “very” or “somewhat” favorable opinion of Kennedy, compared to 34% for Trump and 44% for Biden.

 

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Voto Latino is a grassroots political organization focused on educating and empowering a new generation of Latino voters, as well as creating a more robust and inclusive democracy. Since its founding, Voto Latino has registered over 1.4 million voters, mobilized tens of thousands of voters in the 2022 midterms, helping to defeat the so-called “red wave” and keep the Senate majority-Democrat. Voto Latino has also filed several lawsuits to defend voting rights in Texas, Arizona, and North Carolina ahead of the 2024 election.