Hispanic voters sent Trump back to power. Now some are souring

When onetime Democrat Sam Negron went to the polls to vote for Donald Trump in 2024, he did so with one thing on his mind above all else: the economy.

“I didn’t like paying $7 for eggs,” said Negron, a Pennsylvania state trooper in the predominantly Latino city of Allentown. “But basically his whole talking point was…making the United States a strong country again.”

Negron was not alone in switching to the Republican Party in 2019 after decades as a Democrat.

When Trump achieved a decisive election victory in 2024, he did so with the support of millions of Latino voters who helped him push toward the finish line.

This election saw Trump receive a higher percentage of the Latino vote than any other Republican in US history, with 46% of diverse voters casting their votes in his favor.

However, a year into his first term, cracks began to appear in this support.

A new poll from the BBC’s US partner CBS News shows that support for Trump among US Latinos has fallen to 38 percent; That rate marks a marked decline from a high of 49 percent in early February following Trump’s return to the White House.

The Latino vote is both large and diverse; It includes communities of different lineages, economic power, and relative size.

But collectively, they make up the largest non-white voting bloc in the country, at more than 36 million people.

The data shows that Trump’s gains among these voters in 2024 are largely a result of their dissatisfaction with the economy during the waning years of the Biden administration.

A Pew poll suggested that 93 percent of Latinos who voted for Trump ranked the economy as their top priority, with violent crime and immigration lagging far behind.

The same concerns may haunt Trump now.

Data from the new CBS poll shows that a significant majority of Latinos (61 percent) disapprove of the way Trump is handling the economy, while 69 percent disapprove of the way he is handling inflation. The vast majority said they judge the performance of the U.S. economy based on prices.

Republican strategist Mike Madrid, a critic of Trump and one of the best-known observers of Latino politics, said he believes Latino voters are “totally swaying” toward Trump, especially on the economy.

He said this trend is a repeat of the scenario Democrats find themselves in during the November 2024 elections.

“The shift of Latinos to the right was mostly a result of Latinos leaving the Democratic Party [due to the economy] “It was a function of being coerced by the Republican Party,” he said.

“A lot of people here voted for Trump at this rate, because nothing was happening with Biden,” said Moses Santana, who lives in a predominantly Latino area in North Philadelphia, where Trump received support in 2024.

“But things are still getting tighter… Low-income people are definitely feeling the impact of prices,” added Santana, who works at a drug harm reduction facility. “Many think Trump has a lot to do with their problems.”

Santana’s assessment was echoed by 74-year-old real estate agent and Pasadena, Calif. resident John Acevedo.

“The economy is not going well. Prices are increasing,” he said. “He promised they would come down. They didn’t.”

While White House officials point to low fuel prices, tariff revenues and foreign investment as economic success, polls show a broad swath of Americans are concerned about a slowing job market, high prices and affordability issues.

Inflation remained well above the Fed target at 2.7% for the second consecutive month in December, due to rising food and housing costs. This means that prices are not falling as Trump claims, but rather rising at a slower rate.

Trump, for his part, has repeatedly blamed Biden for the ongoing economic woes.

Inflation reached a 40-year high of 9.1% under Biden in June 2022, when world economies were still grappling with pandemic-related disruptions. He fell towards the end of his term.

The president’s argument is one that at least some Latino supporters are willing to entertain.

Lydia Dominguez, a Mexican native, 10-year Air Force veteran and member of the Clark County School Board in Las Vegas, said she believes it has been “pretty difficult” so far for this administration to get the economy back on track, although she thinks they are doing the best they can.

“[They] “It’s certainly been very effective in getting companies to come and own factories in the United States,” he said, adding that he credits Trump for “empowering” companies and their workers even though prices remain high.

Even among some of Trump’s staunchest supporters, economic concerns are creating mixed feelings about the president.

Among them is Amanda Garcia, a cattle rancher who lives near Rio Grande City, Texas, on the Mexican border.

While Garcia is generally pleased with Trump’s administration (especially his stance on the border and immigration), he said he has had to deal with market disruptions resulting from Trump’s tariff campaigns.

“This really affects the economy and it affects us.” [ranchers] “It’s on another level,” he said. “Sometimes it’s just him tweeting things [about trade]and that upsets someone, and it can really have an impact.”

“I don’t think you realize it sometimes.”

Other Latino voters have expressed concerns about Trump’s immigration enforcement operations, which have included ICE raids across the country and the deportation of more than 600,000 people between January 2024 and early December alone.

“I’m against all of this,” said Rebeca Perez, a restaurant worker in the California town of Oxnard, which witnessed large-scale immigrant raids on businesses in June. “This is supposed to be a free country for all, but it’s not.”

Perez added that in Oxnard, one of California’s agricultural centers, farm produce was wasted because workers were afraid to come.

The CBS poll found that 70 percent of Latinos disapprove of Trump’s handling of immigration; This rate is well above the national average of 58 percent.

While Latinos are evenly split in supporting Trump’s deportation goals, 63% said they don’t like how Trump is currently implementing those goals.

But many Latinos who spoke to the BBC said they supported immigration raids, framing them as protecting the jobs and livelihoods of legal immigrants and US citizens.

“I feel bad for them as a human being. They’re poor in their own country,” said Allentown police officer Sam Negron. “But guess what? I’m poor in mine.”

As with the economy, Trump’s immigration push has created mixed feelings among those who still support him after a year in office.

Houston-based electrician Oscar Byron Sarmiento said he believes Trump is doing a “great job” but also believes his immigration restrictions are “a little overboard.”

“There are a lot of people who are good people. Law-abiding immigrants,” he said. “Yes, they are here illegally, but I don’t think we need to go after these people.”

He added that they want to be in the USA and contribute. “They follow the rules. Just like grandmothers, mothers, aunts and uncles,” Sarmiento said. he said. “Leave those people alone.”

Political strategist Mike Madrid said reducing or reversing dismal poll numbers among Latinos will likely be difficult for the Trump White House ahead of midterm elections later this year.

“We [Latinos] “It has the weakest partisan base of any group and can reject either side when they fail or are dishonest with them,” he added. “Either side can be guilty of this.”

The president’s problems among Latinos are issues that even many Trump supporters acknowledge, and the hope is that they can be resolved over time.

“There are growing concerns,” said Oscar Byron Sarmiento’s wife, Crystal. “Right now Trump is trending lower because he can’t get ahead of the message.”

Additional reporting by Leire Ventas of BBC Mundo and Angélica Casas

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