How Donald Trump won over Latino voters

Republican president-elect received about 45 per cent support among Latino voters - a 13-point increase from 2020

Supporters hold a sign before Donald Trump arrives to speak during a campaign event in Tucson, Arizona, in September. AP

Rumours have swirled this week that president-elect Donald Trump is poised to name Senator Marco Rubio as his secretary of state, potentially making him the first Latino to hold the position.

One of the most shocking outcomes this election cycle was Mr Trump's gains in the Latino community. According to NBC News exit polls, Vice President Kamala Harris had 53 per cent support among Latino voters, while Mr Trump received about 45 per cent support – a 13-point increase from 2020.

“They came from all quarters. Union, non-union, African American, Hispanic American,” Mr Trump told a roaring crowd on election night. “We had everybody, and it was beautiful.”

But why did a bloc that has traditionally voted Democrat move to the right?

Mr Trump made a special effort to woo the Latino community over the course of his campaign. He appeared at a town hall in Florida last month hosted by Spanish-language network Univision and later participated in a panel discussion with community members in the same state.

During discussions with community members, he hammered Ms Harris hard over the economy, touting plans to lower taxes and create jobs. Like many American voters, the economy and cost of living ranked highly among Latinos frustrated with high inflation in recent years.

In addition, the era of globalisation has sent many factory jobs overseas, and Mr Trump promised to bring them back – something that was likely to have resonated with Latinos working in blue-collar jobs.

An issue that has in the past pushed Latino voters to the left appeared to work in Mr Trump's favour this election cycle: throughout his campaign, Mr Trump focused on the illegal immigration crisis, vowing to begin sweeping deportations from his first day in office.

A CBS News/YouGov poll from over the summer found that 53 per cent of Latino voters favoured mass deportation of illegal immigrants, and a Pew Research survey found that 76 per cent viewed the border was a “crisis” or a “major problem”, with almost two thirds saying that the Biden administration was doing a poor job addressing it.

There were 62.5 million Latinos and Hispanics living in the US in 2021, about 19 per cent of the total population, and the community is incredibly diverse, with people coming from a range of countries and cultures.

For Latino immigrants coming from countries under authoritarian regimes, such as Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua, Mr Trump's messaging on “Comrade Kamala” recalled memories of the situation they fled, Luis Gomez Romero, lecturer in human rights, constitutional law and legal theory at the University of Wollongong, wrote for The Conversation.

Another explanation for the community's shift towards Republicans is the conservative social values espoused by the party.

Over the past several decades, the Christian community has identified more increasingly with the Republican Party and its emphasis on conservative social values. Mr Trump and his Republicans have made “culture war” issues – such as transgender rights and discussions of race, sexual orientation and diversity in the classroom – central to their platform.

More than half of Latinos identify as Catholic or Christian, with 43 per cent practising Catholicism and another 21 pre cent following another Christian denomination, according to a Pew Research Centre survey from last year.

According to AP VoteCast, this year, 54 per cent of Catholic voters supported Mr Trump and 44 per cent backed Ms Harris, a shift that was particularly notable in states like Florida and Texas, which have large Latino populations.

Ultimately, however, the blame lies with the Democratic Party, which “absolutely” took the vote of the Latino community – which continues to grow and change – for granted, Leslie Sanchez, a Republican political analyst and contributor to CBS News, said.

“I would think the party of my parents, the party of my grandparents, just assumed that Latinos, as the community grew, and our population grew, that we would just naturally fall in line with the Democratic Party,” she said.