Sixty percent of young Latinos support Biden: poll

Sixty percent of young Latinos between the ages of 18 and 34 plan to vote for Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden in the upcoming general election, according to data from a national Telemundo-Buzzfeed News survey of Latino voters.

The poll also found that 60 percent of young Latinos surveyed believe the 2020 election is more important than the 2016 election, with the recent Black Lives Matter demonstrations and the coronavirus pandemic being the driving factors leading them to the polls. 

More than 80 percent of young Latinos polled said the coronavirus pandemic has impacted them personally, with 43 percent saying they experienced financial hardship as a result of the health crisis. The poll also found that over 70 percent of Latino and Black young adults reported facing racial discrimination in some form in the past two years. 

According to the survey, 55.8 percent of young Latino voters said they’ve participated in Black Lives Matter protests and 82 percent said the protests are motivating them to vote. More than 70 percent of young Latinos polled said that the coronavirus pandemic is also motivating them to vote, which is virtually the same among their non-Latino counterparts. 

Though 60 percent of young Latinos polled indicated they are voting for Biden, over one-third also described themselves as independent or undecided about their political party affiliation. Half said they identify themselves as Democrat and 13 percent said they are Republican.

Latino enthusiasm for the Democratic Party has also shown to have dulled compared to previous elections. A recent poll by Equis Research that surveyed 1,081 Latinos in Florida found that while Biden led Trump 53 percent to 37 percent among those Latino voters, he was still behind where Clinton performed, according to 2016 CNN exit polling.

When asked to name a politician who had “shown up” for the Latino community, a third responded “nobody.” Among those who did name a political figure who supports them, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and Biden were mentioned by 6 percent each and President Trump was mentioned by 3 percent.

The survey questioned 638 people who identified as Latino and 685 non-Latino people between the ages of 18 and 34 between June 5 and June 22. The poll reported a margin of error of 2.7 percentage points among the entire pool of respondents and a 3.8 percentage-point margin of error for the young Latino voter sample.