Trump chases Latino vote as support for Biden slips among young Hispanic voters

Former President Donald Trump has announced the formation of a new campaign coalition aimed at attracting Latino voters disillusioned with the Democratic party and the policies of the Biden Administration.

In announcing “Latino Americans for Trump,” the 45th president said he’s looking to build on past successes among the largest segment of non-white voters.

“In 2020, we got more votes from Hispanic Americans than any Republican in more than 50 years, and we won the Texas border counties that no Republican candidate had won in more than a century! In 2024, we’re going to win an even larger share of the Hispanic American vote, setting all-time records for Republicans up and down the ballot,” Trump said.

The formation of Trump’s newest coalition comes as polling suggests that voters who identify as Latino aren’t feeling nearly as enthusiastic about supporting President Joe Biden for a second term as they did during his first election, and as Biden works to shore up support among the minority voting blocks that propelled him into office in 2020.

A New York Times/Siena poll released in mid-May showed support for Biden slipping among younger Hispanic and Black voters over his continued support of Israel’s war efforts in Gaza.

Trump’s campaign, in announcing the new coalition, said that Latino families are suffering under rising inflation and higher interest rates. The campaign said that U.S. Hispanic-identifying voters prefer immigration policies that support legal immigration and that “consequently, they disapprove of how millions have been allowed to cross the border illegally. Latino voters ‘overwhelmingly’ trust President Trump over Biden on his approach to address border security and immigration.”

U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, of Florida, and U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, of Texas, both of whom ran against Trump in the 2016 Republican Primary, both endorsed the coalition.

“Growing up in a Cuban household taught me the importance of family, faith and the value of honest work. Under President Trump, Hispanics saw the lowest rate of unemployment in history, their small businesses boomed, prices were low, and jobs were abundant. Joe Biden has all but reversed that completely, which is why America needs to elect President Trump come November,” Cruz said in a statement shared by Trump’s campaign.

Biden’s campaign preempted Trump’s announcement with a call for Latino voters to ignore his outreach attempts and remember what life was like under a Trump presidency.

“The truth is, Donald Trump failed Latinos and their families, while President Biden has actually delivered real results like lowering health care costs, creating good-paying jobs – resulting in the lowest Latino unemployment ever – and making historic investments leading to Latino small businesses opening at the fastest rate in a decade,” Biden-Harris 2024 Campaign Manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez said in a statement.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Hispanic or Latino Unemployment Rate fell to 3.9% in September of 2019, the third year of Trump’s presidency. The unemployment rate for that segment of the population jumped to 18.9% in April of 2020 at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In September of 2022, during the second year of Biden’s presidency, the Latino unemployment rate had fallen to 3.8%, “the lowest rate since 1973,” according to BLS. It currently stands at 5%, just higher than the national average of 4%.

This all comes as Trump held an outdoor rally Sunday in Las Vegas, where the heat and voters were strong.