New Report Shows Democrats’ Latino Voter Collapse and Party Infighting

A new report by The Economist/YouGov highlights the significant Democrat infighting pushing away Hispanic voters, while Republicans continue making historic gains with Latino communities, fed up with Democrats’ far-left agenda, rising costs, open borders, and out of touch policies.

According to the results, Democrats now hold just a two-point advantage over Republicans among Hispanic voters — their weakest performance since 2018, when that margin stood at 40 points.

While Democrats appear to be shunning Hispanic candidates, the Republican Party is doubling down on them with support.

Long considered to be “demographically destined” to support the Democratic Party, in recent elections Latino voters are increasingly favoring Republican presidential candidates, a 2025 report found. Latinos are identifying less as Democrats and more as Republicans and independents, and those Latinos who were born in the US are becoming less politically engaged overall.

VOZ reports:

The Democratic Party is facing new internal divisions amid declining support among Hispanic voters. Alongside slipping voter support within this demographic, several disputes involving Hispanic candidates have emerged, with some openly criticizing Democratic leadership. On the other side, the Republican Party is increasingly backing Hispanic candidates in key races as they seek to preserve and expand their gains with this demographic group.

Between 2016 and 2024, Donald Trump was the face of a Republican Party that made historic gainsamong Hispanics. In fact, in the most recent presidential election, Trump posted the strongest Hispanic vote performance for a Republican since polling on the issue began.

By contrast, Democrats are watching a voting bloc they long considered a secure part of their coalition become increasingly competitive. So found a recent poll by The Economist/YouGov. According to its results, Democrats now hold just a two-point advantage over Republicans among Hispanic voters — their weakest performance since 2018, when that margin stood at 40 points.

Latin Times reported in 2025:

The Pew Research Center showed that Trump got 48% of the vote among Latinos, compared to 51% who supported Kamala Harris. The data comes from surveys of validated voters, most recently one among 7,100 people conducted between November 12 and 17 last year, the organization explained.

The figures illustrate how Trump has made remarkable inroads with the demographic, considering he got 28% of the support in the 2016 election, compared to 66% who voted for Hillary Clinton. The shift, however, could already be seen in 2020: back then, Trump jumped to 36% of the Latino vote, while Democratic candidate Joe Biden received 61% of the support.

Axios noted that Trump’s performance with the demographic was the best for a Republican candidate in modern times. That is, dating back to 1960.

California’s 22nd Congressional District is one example. Current Republican Rep. David Valadao was first elected to the House in 2012, and was re-elected in 2014 and 2016, but narrowly lost re-election to TJ Cox in 2018 during the California Congressional Republican midterm wipeout. Valadeo was re-elected in a rematch against Cox in 2020.

While Democrats view Valadeo’s seat as one of their best pickup opportunities, VOZ reports that party leadership opted to back Jasmeet Bains instead of Randy Villegas, a Hispanic candidate, despite the district being 72% Hispanic.

“This is the most Latino district in California,” Villegas said, publicly criticizing the decision. “The Central Valley has never elected a Latino to Congress. I will be the first. But it’s frankly outright disrespectful that these party insiders, that these DC elites, would try to put their thumb on the scale to try and block a Latino representative,” he told Punchbowl News.

Political Science Now reported that “during the Biden-Harris administration. Many Latino voters expressed dissatisfaction with economic policies: inflation and cost of living increases. Survey after survey indicated that economic issues and inflation were of greater priority for many Latinx communities during the recent elections. As Latinos are a demographic that intersects significantly with economic vulnerability, this economic threat likely fueled their willingness to consider Trump’s message. The Democratic Party’s focus on social justice issues and identity politics may have alienated Latino voters who viewed this as deprioritizing their concerns about job security and economic stability.”

Specifically, This realignment since 2016 is driven by:

“Democrats continue taking Hispanic voters for granted and are now openly trying to clear the field and push Hispanic candidates off the ballot when party insiders don’t approve of them. Republicans continue earning the trust of Hispanic communities because we’re delivering on the issues families care about,” said Christian Martinez, national Hispanic press secretary for the NRCC.