A new national survey of registered Latino voters found they are significantly more interested in voting in the 2024 presidential election now that President Biden is out of the race and Vice President Harris is the presumptive Democratic nominee for the White House.
The poll, conducted with 600 voters nationwide from Aug. 6 to Aug. 10, found a 33 percent net increase in interest in voting for Democrats among Latinos after Harris replaced Biden atop the Democratic ticket.
The increase in enthusiasm is especially pronounced among Latino voters ages 18 to 29. The survey found a 54 percent increase among voters in that group who now say they are certain to vote in November.
“Before the shift in the political landscape, we were having some challenges talking to segments in our community in trying to engage them in civic engagement, education, voter registration,” said Frankie Miranda, president and CEO of the Hispanic Federation, which commissioned the survey.
“Now we have seen such an incredible enthusiasm that we were already seeing immediately after the announcement by VP Harris that she was going to aspire to be the official nominee,” he added.
“The fact that 73 percent of registered Latinos that were polled said they were certain they will vote in 2024 demonstrates this enthusiasm that has been anecdotal at first but now with this poll, we can actually confirm it,” he said.
The survey was commissioned jointly with the Latino Victory Foundation.
Miranda cited Pennsylvania as a key state where the “explosion of enthusiasm among Latinos” could have a significant impact.
“I think this is going to play an important role in many of the swing states. I can see this being significant in Pennsylvania as we see Puerto Ricans trending as more enthusiastic than other Latinos,” he said. “The road to the White House is through the Latino community.”
But he cautioned that Latinos want to learn more about Harris’s positions on the issues.
“The other part we need to be cautious about, Latinos are really looking forward to [learning] more [about] the policy platforms from both sides. While we polled individual policy issues like cost of living, jobs and the economy and housing, which comes on the top. They still say they want to hear more from the candidates on many different issues,” he said.
The survey found a 47 percent net increase in interest among Latino voters in the 2024 election since Biden dropped out of the race.
They cited cost of living and inflation, jobs and the economy and housing costs and affordability as their top issues.
Issues at the U.S.-Mexico border and immigration reform for immigrants already in the country are also top issues for Latino voters, the survey found.
The poll had a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.