Two days after the 2024 election, Republicans, Democrats, and pollsters are analyzing the results. Republicans won the White House, took control of the Senate, and control of the House is within reach, but hotly contested races have yet to be reported. Vice President Kamala Harris (D) announced yesterday that she had no regrets regarding her campaign. Exit polls are showing however that President Trump scored big with Latino voters while the Harris campaign languished with this demographic.
An exit poll conducted by Edison Research showed that 46% of Latino voters supported President Trump on Tuesday, which is higher than the support that President Ronald Reagan (R) and President George W. Bush (R) received in their respective elections. Specifically, the president-elect received the vote from 55% of Latino men and 38% of Latino women.
In 2004, President Bush received 44% of Latino support. In 1980, President Reagan received 37% of support from Latinos, and in 1984, he received 34% of support from Latinos. This makes President Trump the only Republican candidate to receive the biggest share of the national Latino vote.
In contrast, Vice President Harris received the worst showing among Latinos for a Democratic presidential candidate in 20 years. The vice president won 52% of the Latino vote, which ties her with Secretary John Kerry (D) in 2004 as the worst performance by a Democrat.
Jeronimo Cortina, a professor of political science at the University of Houston, argues that Democrats did not transmit a clear economic message to Latinos while President Trump focused on the same at his rallies. "Latinos were saying, 'I don't care what Trump says. I want to be able to pay the bills. I want to be able to send my kid to college. I want to pay the mortgage, to afford a new car,'" Cortina said. Exit polls corroborate this as the economy was at the forefront of issues with voters.
During an interview with CNN, Florida Rep. Carlos Giménez (R) discussed the Latino support for the president, commenting that it comes down to values.
🚨The Hispanic community has FLOCKED to the Republican Party & President Trump.
Our Hispanic community are people of faith, family, & hard work. The GOP has always been our natural home.
The socialists have hijacked the Democrat Party & left so many Hispanics behind. pic.twitter.com/DBNThrn04k
— Rep. Carlos A. Gimenez (@RepCarlos) November 7, 2024
"Our values are more aligned with Hispanics than the Democrat Party. The Democrat Party is going way to the left, to the extreme left," Rep. Giménez commented. "Many of us came here fleeing communism, fleeing socialism, and we look at the Democrat Party getting closer and closer to socialism, and that's being rejected."
"We're a party of faith, we're a party of family, we're a party of hard work, and Hispanic men and women are people of faith, people of hard work, people of family, so our values are aligning... the Hispanics are coming home to their natural home, which is the Republican Party," he further explained.
