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Hispanic approval of Joe Biden at record low

The President's support base is becoming increasingly narrow. Credit: Getty

June 23, 2023 - 3:00pm

Nearly two-thirds of Hispanic voters disapprove of Joe Biden’s job performance, a new poll has found. According to Pew data published this week, 60% of Hispanics disapprove of the President, with 31% of voters strongly and 29% somewhat disapproving.

These figures mark a sharp year-on-year decline for the President. Over the last two years, Hispanic disapproval of Biden has risen by 10 percentage points each year, up from 40% in September 2021. Meanwhile, his approval among this key voter demographic now sits at just 35%, second only to white voters. 

While this drop reflects a broader decline in approval across all racial demographics, it has been most pronounced among Hispanics. In last year’s midterms, Democratic candidates won 57% of Hispanic voters, a lower percentage than the 66% that backed the party in the 2018 midterms. Similarly, in 2020 Donald Trump did 8 percentage points better with Hispanic voters than he did in 2016, winning nearly 40% of the group’s voters nationally.

Conscious of his poor showing with Hispanic voters, Joe Biden hired Julie Chávez Rodriguez, granddaughter of civil rights figure Cesar Chávez, to manage his reelection campaign this year. Rodriguez worked for both Barack Obama and Kamala Harris before being hired by Biden’s 2020 presidential campaign as a deputy campaign manager and senior adviser for Latino outreach.

As part of Rodriguez’s and the President’s 2024 strategy, produced in English and Spanish, the Democrats are looking to expand their outreach with Hispanic “early and often”, highlighting Florida as a potential target. Biden won a majority of Hispanic voters in Florida in 2020, but his support was down 10% from Hillary Clinton‘s in 2016. In addition, more than half of the state’s Hispanic voters turned out in favour of Florida governor Ron DeSantis and senator Marco Rubio in the 2022 elections. 

This shift in support poses serious challenges to the Democrats in not just Florida but across the country too. Hispanics made up 62% of total growth in the nation’s eligible voters between 2018 and last year’s election, making it a highly prized demographic for both Republicans and Democrats. That means that there are four million more eligible Hispanic voters ahead of 2024 than there were in 2020, with new voters emerging in key swing states such as Florida. 

Hispanics were once a reliable voting bloc for the Democrats. In 2002, researchers Ruy Teixeira and John Judis argued in their book The Emerging Democratic Majority that the party would stand to benefit from America’s increasingly diverse, and by extension Hispanic, population. Teixeira has since abandoned this prediction, claiming instead that the Democrats’ loss of support among Hispanic voters is an existential threat to the party. Citing the nature and size of recent Hispanic shifts against the Democrats, Teixeira concluded: “It’s not as bad as you think, it’s worse.”


is UnHerd’s Newsroom editor.

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Daniel P
Daniel P
10 months ago

Both parties are full of fools but the democrats are likely worse.

The problem the democrats have is that they think and act on emotion with a desire to signal their virtue, and fail to consider the long term aspects of what they do.

They got cocky and wrote off the white working class vote. DUMB

They did it because they convinced themselves that anyone not white would automatically be a vote for them and with the changing demographics, they were a lock to have power for decades. This is where the whole POC thing came from, it is short for anyone not white and then they tried to set the narrative that all POCs are democrats forever.

BUT they were extraordinarily ignorant. They failed to consider that the interests of successful minorities, particularly successful minorities from conservative cultures, might actually not find their policies attractive. They failed to consider that a lot of the immigrants came from places with failed governments and failed cultures that embraced the very policies that the democrats push. They also failed to see how the interests of these groups might collide with the interests of native born black people who are the one constituency the democrats cannot afford to offend under any circumstances. Right behind native born black people, they cannot afford to offend the white progressives who also have interests that collide with those of these new minorities. They had no understanding of these new groups. They cannot tell the difference between a Mexican from the Yucatan from one raised in Mexico City from a Venezuelan from a Cuban from a Colombian. They do not understand that a liberal Pakistani is still damn conservative. They cannot see that Indian immigrants are perfect republicans in the making, ambitious, educated, hard nosed capitalists who work hard and build businesses.

Here is another thing that they failed to consider. People can move. CA and NY are losing people, seats in the house, and they are losing their tax bases. Republicans in both those places, and MA too, have been powerless in those states, but when they leave and go to TX or FL or KY or TN, they bring money and by shifting the population, they bring more house seats and more electoral college votes.

Last edited 10 months ago by Daniel P
Frank McCusker
Frank McCusker
10 months ago
Reply to  Daniel P

Well, that’s true. Many immigrant groupings are very conservative. I still remember, in the early 1990s in London, my Sri Lankan girlfriend’s elderly Mum (who had moved to London as a girl) asking me, at dinner, what I thought about all these black immigrants coming into the country? She came for a wealthy plantation owning family whose assets had been seized by the military, and she generally despised other, later, immigrants. I remember thinking most left-wing whites have no idea.  

Frank McCusker
Frank McCusker
10 months ago
Reply to  Daniel P

Well, that’s true. Many immigrant groupings are very conservative. I still remember, in the early 1990s in London, my Sri Lankan girlfriend’s elderly Mum (who had moved to London as a girl) asking me, at dinner, what I thought about all these black immigrants coming into the country? She came for a wealthy plantation owning family whose assets had been seized by the military, and she generally despised other, later, immigrants. I remember thinking most left-wing whites have no idea.  

Daniel P
Daniel P
10 months ago

Both parties are full of fools but the democrats are likely worse.

The problem the democrats have is that they think and act on emotion with a desire to signal their virtue, and fail to consider the long term aspects of what they do.

They got cocky and wrote off the white working class vote. DUMB

They did it because they convinced themselves that anyone not white would automatically be a vote for them and with the changing demographics, they were a lock to have power for decades. This is where the whole POC thing came from, it is short for anyone not white and then they tried to set the narrative that all POCs are democrats forever.

BUT they were extraordinarily ignorant. They failed to consider that the interests of successful minorities, particularly successful minorities from conservative cultures, might actually not find their policies attractive. They failed to consider that a lot of the immigrants came from places with failed governments and failed cultures that embraced the very policies that the democrats push. They also failed to see how the interests of these groups might collide with the interests of native born black people who are the one constituency the democrats cannot afford to offend under any circumstances. Right behind native born black people, they cannot afford to offend the white progressives who also have interests that collide with those of these new minorities. They had no understanding of these new groups. They cannot tell the difference between a Mexican from the Yucatan from one raised in Mexico City from a Venezuelan from a Cuban from a Colombian. They do not understand that a liberal Pakistani is still damn conservative. They cannot see that Indian immigrants are perfect republicans in the making, ambitious, educated, hard nosed capitalists who work hard and build businesses.

Here is another thing that they failed to consider. People can move. CA and NY are losing people, seats in the house, and they are losing their tax bases. Republicans in both those places, and MA too, have been powerless in those states, but when they leave and go to TX or FL or KY or TN, they bring money and by shifting the population, they bring more house seats and more electoral college votes.

Last edited 10 months ago by Daniel P
Jim Veenbaas
Jim Veenbaas
10 months ago

The Dems election team can be Hispanic from head to toe, but they will continue to lose Hispanic voters as long as it pursues this progressive agenda. And what has the GOP done to embrace Hispanic voters?

Peter Johnson
Peter Johnson
10 months ago
Reply to  Jim Veenbaas

I can’t imagine that pushing the trans agenda in schools appeals to a Catholic constituency with strong traditional family values.

Peter Johnson
Peter Johnson
10 months ago
Reply to  Jim Veenbaas

I can’t imagine that pushing the trans agenda in schools appeals to a Catholic constituency with strong traditional family values.

Jim Veenbaas
Jim Veenbaas
10 months ago

The Dems election team can be Hispanic from head to toe, but they will continue to lose Hispanic voters as long as it pursues this progressive agenda. And what has the GOP done to embrace Hispanic voters?

Simon Denis
Simon Denis
10 months ago

Whether or not the zombie-puppet Biden and his minders lose the Hispanic vote, we know now that it no longer matters – for the moment. The left will continue to “win” elections by the same means as before: stopping the count, shipping in truckloads of fake ballot papers and threatening critics with ostracism.
And in case any miserable conformist pink-haired dope pipes up with some objection to “conspiracy theories”, let them reflect on their own reluctance to concede wins to Republican presidents, and the endless harrying of Trump with false, vexatious litigation.
They imagine that because they now have hold of “polite” opinion, the corporations, advertising, schools and big tech that they are invulnerable to justified criticism. But this is the unavoidable moment of their mortal weakness. The great idol is already rocking on its pedestal.

Frank McCusker
Frank McCusker
10 months ago
Reply to  Simon Denis
Simon Denis
Simon Denis
10 months ago
Reply to  Frank McCusker

A leftist propagandist quotes from a leftist propaganda sheet. How illuminating!

Simon Denis
Simon Denis
10 months ago
Reply to  Frank McCusker

A leftist propagandist quotes from a leftist propaganda sheet. How illuminating!

Mike Doyle
Mike Doyle
10 months ago
Reply to  Simon Denis

Did you forget to take your meds?

Simon Denis
Simon Denis
10 months ago
Reply to  Mike Doyle

Have you slipped your strait jacket?

Mike Doyle
Mike Doyle
10 months ago
Reply to  Simon Denis

Nope, it’s keeping me warm and comfy. How’s yours?

Simon Denis
Simon Denis
10 months ago
Reply to  Mike Doyle

I don’t have one – but I’m glad you are reconciled to your condition – ’tis the first step towards a cure.

Simon Denis
Simon Denis
10 months ago
Reply to  Mike Doyle

I don’t have one – but I’m glad you are reconciled to your condition – ’tis the first step towards a cure.

Mike Doyle
Mike Doyle
10 months ago
Reply to  Simon Denis

Nope, it’s keeping me warm and comfy. How’s yours?

Simon Denis
Simon Denis
10 months ago
Reply to  Mike Doyle

Have you slipped your strait jacket?

Frank McCusker
Frank McCusker
10 months ago
Reply to  Simon Denis
Mike Doyle
Mike Doyle
10 months ago
Reply to  Simon Denis

Did you forget to take your meds?

Simon Denis
Simon Denis
10 months ago

Whether or not the zombie-puppet Biden and his minders lose the Hispanic vote, we know now that it no longer matters – for the moment. The left will continue to “win” elections by the same means as before: stopping the count, shipping in truckloads of fake ballot papers and threatening critics with ostracism.
And in case any miserable conformist pink-haired dope pipes up with some objection to “conspiracy theories”, let them reflect on their own reluctance to concede wins to Republican presidents, and the endless harrying of Trump with false, vexatious litigation.
They imagine that because they now have hold of “polite” opinion, the corporations, advertising, schools and big tech that they are invulnerable to justified criticism. But this is the unavoidable moment of their mortal weakness. The great idol is already rocking on its pedestal.

Hugh Bryant
Hugh Bryant
10 months ago

What’s astonishing is that anyone approves of this useless grifter, not that some people don’t.

Frank McCusker
Frank McCusker
10 months ago
Reply to  Hugh Bryant

Well look at how many people approved of Johnson

joe hardy
joe hardy
10 months ago
Reply to  Hugh Bryant

The Democrats act like they don’t need the voter’s approval because they don’t.
The powers that be installed Joe Biden and they will reinstall him in ’24.
I’ve never seen such disregard for the common person as this administration.
He wants to take guns away from law abiding citizens while his own crackhead son walks free for committing felony gun charges.

Frank McCusker
Frank McCusker
10 months ago
Reply to  Hugh Bryant

Well look at how many people approved of Johnson

joe hardy
joe hardy
10 months ago
Reply to  Hugh Bryant

The Democrats act like they don’t need the voter’s approval because they don’t.
The powers that be installed Joe Biden and they will reinstall him in ’24.
I’ve never seen such disregard for the common person as this administration.
He wants to take guns away from law abiding citizens while his own crackhead son walks free for committing felony gun charges.

Hugh Bryant
Hugh Bryant
10 months ago

What’s astonishing is that anyone approves of this useless grifter, not that some people don’t.

Emre S
Emre S
10 months ago

Who would have thought Democrats would lose the Latinx people? They should introduce more sexual content like pornographic books and drag shows to primary schools, and defund the police in crime hot spots to showcase their higher morals. Meanwhile white people should make demonstrations to talk about why non-white people are morally inferior using selective crime statistics. These two main strands of American politics combined like this, I see real positive change coming.

Michael Cavanaugh
Michael Cavanaugh
10 months ago
Reply to  Emre S

So I asked some Spanish-speakers on my block how to pronounce “Latinx.” I didn’t understand their response, but it sounded something like “pen-day-oh.”

Michael Cavanaugh
Michael Cavanaugh
10 months ago
Reply to  Emre S

So I asked some Spanish-speakers on my block how to pronounce “Latinx.” I didn’t understand their response, but it sounded something like “pen-day-oh.”

Emre S
Emre S
10 months ago

Who would have thought Democrats would lose the Latinx people? They should introduce more sexual content like pornographic books and drag shows to primary schools, and defund the police in crime hot spots to showcase their higher morals. Meanwhile white people should make demonstrations to talk about why non-white people are morally inferior using selective crime statistics. These two main strands of American politics combined like this, I see real positive change coming.

Michael Cavanaugh
Michael Cavanaugh
10 months ago

Winning votes: is it part of electoral politics?