Latinos backing Dem House hopefuls more engaged this cycle than GOP, study says
by Tim Vandenack ksl · KSL.comKEY TAKEAWAYS
- Latino voters supporting Democratic U.S. House hopefuls are more engaged this election cycle than those backing Republicans, according to a Pew survey.
- At the same time, support among Latino voters for President Donald Trump, a Republican, has fallen since 2024.
- As for issues, 86% of Latino voters say the economy is a very important factor in voting this cycle.
SALT LAKE CITY — Latinos aligned with Democratic candidates are more engaged this election cycle than those backing Republicans, results of a new survey show.
More than three-quarters of registered Latino voters who back a Democratic hopeful in their local U.S. House race, 77% of them, "say it really matters who wins control of Congress, up from 58% in 2022," the Pew Research Center said in a new report on Latino attitudes ahead of this year's midterm elections. The figure for Latinos backing Republican congressional candidates is 68%, down from 69% four years ago.
At the same time, support among Latino voters for President Donald Trump, a Republican, has fallen since 2024.
"Two years into the second Trump administration, the president's standing with Latino voters has deteriorated," reads the Pew report, released last week and based on surveys carried out from Sept. 28 to Oct. 4. "His current job approval rating among Latino voters, at 24%, is down from 38% in February 2025. And majorities of Latino voters say the Trump administration's policies harm Hispanics more than help them and that their situation as a group is worse than a year ago."
The Latino community has been a key demographic courted by political hopefuls, and the population's support, historically weighted in favor of Democrats, has shifted more to the GOP side in recent years. Pew's latest numbers, though, show a seeming ebbing of that GOP support, with more engagement on the Democratic side of the political spectrum.
Among Latinos favoring a Democrat in the U.S. House races in their respective districts, 53% report being "extremely motivated to vote," up from 41% ahead of the 2022 midterm elections. Among Latinos favoring a Republican hopeful, 43% are as motivated, down from 51% four years ago.
Trump, the economy
The president's approval rating has dipped among Hispanic voters who supported him in 2024, from 93% at the start of his second term in early 2025 to 57% today.
Moreover, 55% of Latino registered voters see their vote for Congress this cycle "as a vote against Trump" compared to 26% of Latino voters in 2022 who viewed their vote as opposition to Joe Biden, the Democratic president at the time.
At the same time, 61% of the Latino voters surveyed said the situation this year is worse than a year ago, down slightly from 65% last year who said the situation was worse than the year prior. "In 2021, only 28% said Hispanics' situation had worsened in the previous year, and in 2019, 42% said this," Pew said.
As for key issues, 86% of Latino voters say the economy is a very important factor in casting a vote this cycle, similar to other registered voters. Parsed by the House candidate they back, 89% of Latino voters who back a Democratic hopeful say the economy is very important compared to 78% of Latino voters who support a Republican.
The Key Takeaways for this article were generated with the assistance of large language models and reviewed by our editorial team. The article, itself, is solely human-written.