Republican apologizes for anti-Muslim comments 3:35
(CNN) -
Among Donald Trump's lies about the 2020 election, this important fact was missed: The then president did surprisingly well among Hispanic voters in several major states.
In Florida, Trump won 46% of the Latino vote, a performance that allowed him to win the state more easily than expected.
In Texas, Trump took 41% of the Latino vote, which again helped him win in the state.
Nationally, he won 32% of the Hispanic vote, an improvement from the 28% he had in 2016.
World AIDS Day: Hispanic youth among the population most vulnerable to HIV infection
A new poll from The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) suggests those 2020 numbers weren't an anomaly.
When asked if they would vote for a Democratic or Republican candidate for Congress in 2022, Latinos were divided in half: 37% chose each side.
When Hispanic voters were asked who they would vote for if the 2024 race were held today, 44% chose President Joe Biden, while 43% chose Trump.
And Biden's approval ratings among Hispanics in the poll were also problematic.
Only 42% approved of the job he is doing as president, while 54% disapproved.
Among Hispanic men, that number was even worse, with 61% disapproving of Biden's work.
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Are there red flags for Democrats in 2022?
2:18
"Hispanic voters are becoming increasingly undecided," said Democratic pollster John Anzalone, who helped conduct the WSJ poll.
"They are a deciding vote for which we will have to fight."
That marks a sea change from thinking around Hispanic voters over the past decade, when population growth coupled with their clear Democratic lean suggested that Republicans were facing a demographic disaster in the years to come.
Now, this is just one poll, and other recent polls have shown that Democrats have an advantage among Latinos, but nowhere near the 40-point advantage they had nationwide in the 2018 midterm elections.
Analyst Says Democrats Should Heed Red Flags For 2022
So what changed?
Democratic strategist Ruy Teixeira, in an essay titled "The Problem of Democrats' Hispanic Voters," suggests that the party's left movement nationwide has made it less attractive to Latinos.
"This constituency does not harbor particularly radical views on the nature of American society and its alleged intrinsic racism and white supremacism," writes Teixeira.
"Instead, they are a patriotic, ascendant, working-class group with pretty practical concerns and down to earth. Democrats will learn to focus on that or they will continue to lose ground among this vital group of voters."
The point: The numbers cited above make it clear: Democrats must start paying attention to voices like Teixeira's, or risk seeing what was once seen as a dominant demographic advantage among Hispanic voters disappear.
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