Inflation, housing and jobs: the reasons why Latinos moved away from Trump in the United States

The cost of living, the economy and housing, more so than migration, were the concerns that drove Latinos to vote for Democrats in the United States and reject President Donald Trump, according to a survey released this Wednesday by UnidosUS, the largest Hispanic organization in the country.

These are the keys, according to the poll, as to why Latinos were the largest group of voters to move away from Trump and the Republicans in the United States midterm election that resulted in a "blue wave" for Democrats, who won the majority of the House of Representatives and the Senate.

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Although Trump obtained almost half of the Latino vote in the United States in 2024, a record for a Republican presidential candidate, according to the Pew Research Center, now 63% of Hispanic voters disapprove of his administration, including 51% who view it as "very unfavorable," the UnidosUS survey indicated.

Nearly one in six Latinos who voted for Trump, 17%, now chose Democrats for the House of Representatives, who in total received 67% of Hispanic support, 10 points more than the presidential candidate of that party in 2024, Kamala Harris.

The majority of Latinos also supported Democratic candidates for the Senate (63%) and governor (66%), noted the poll of 3,014 Latino voters in tight districts, battleground states for the Senate, as well as Texas, Florida, Arizona, California and Michigan.

Almost six out of 10 Latinos, 58%, mentioned the cost of living and inflation as their biggest concern, more than any other issue.

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Including this factor, the top five concerns mentioned by Hispanics were economic: jobs and the economy (34%), the cost of medical healthcare (30%), the price of gasoline (29%), and housing and rent (29%).

Nearly one in four Latinos, 27%, stated immigration policy and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) as one of their primary concerns.

More than two-thirds, 68%, disapproved of ICE's performance, including 54% who "strongly" disapproved.

77% agreed to some extent that the current immigration system is "unfair" and that "ICE agents violate people's rights, separate families, and even use violence," and therefore called for replacing the current approach.

The survey also "demonstrated that Latino voter support cannot be taken for granted," according to UnidosUS, as 38% of them are in the "persuadable center," meaning they are not loyal to any party and can lean toward one or the other.

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Furthermore, four out of 10 stated that the first time they voted in a United States election was in 2022, reflecting that there are increasingly more new Hispanic voters.

Latinos represented half of all new voters in the United States from 2022 to 2026, according to UnidosUS.

The survey was conducted by phone and online from October 20 to November 3 among Latinos who had already voted, as it includes early voting, with a margin of error of 1.8% nationally and 2.6% to 6.3% in the various specific states.