Exit polls in key battleground states show that President Trump made major inroads with Hispanic voters in the 2020 election.
According to CNN, Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden won the Hispanic vote in Florida by 8 points, 19 points lower than Hillary Clinton in 2016. In Georgia, Biden won the Hispanic vote by 25 points, 15 points worse than Clinton’s performance in the state. Ohio showed similar numbers, with Biden winning Hispanics by 24 points, 17 points worse than Clinton did with the demographic in the Buckeye State.
Hispanic voters per early 2020 exit polls:
Florida:
2016: Clinton +27
2020: Biden +8Georgia:
2016: Clinton +40
2020: Biden +25Ohio:
2016: Clinton +41
2020: Biden +24CNN
— Political Polls (@PpollingNumbers) November 4, 2020
Coming into the election, polls showed Trump making inroads with both Hispanic and black voters.
“Going into Election Day in 2020, Trump seems poised to do even better with minority voters,” wrote Musa al-Gharbi for NBC News. “His gains in the polling have been highly consistent and broad-based among Blacks and Hispanics — with male voters and female voters, the young and the old, educated and uneducated. Overall, Trump is polling about 10 percentage points higher with African Americans than he did in 2016, and 14 percentage points higher with Hispanics.”
While many white voters find some of Trump’s comments offensive, al-Gharbi said it’s possible that minorities don’t see things the same way.
“It may be that many minority voters simply do not view some of his controversial comments and policies as racist,” al-Gharbi said. “Too often, scholars try to test whether something is racist by looking exclusively at whether the rhetoric or proposals they disagree with resonate with whites. They frequently don’t even bother to test whether they might appeal to minorities, as well.”
During the 2016 election, Clinton won 66% of the Hispanic vote, 1 point lower than former President Barack Obama’s performance in 2012. But according to an analysis by FiveThirtyEight, polls showed Trump gaining support from the crucial demographic ahead of Tuesday’s election.
