In this general election, more Latino and Black voters supported Donald Trump than in his previous presidential campaigns. How was this possible?
Apparently, Trump’s message about economic inflation and even immigration managed to resonate with Black and Latino voters, specifically young males. For example Brian Leija, a 31-year-old small business owner from Belton said Trump’s policies really benefited him back in his first term.
“I am a blue-collar worker,” Leija told the Associated Press. “So, tax breaks for small businesses are ideal for what I do.”
According to AP VoteCast, a nationwide survey, Trump received significant support from Black and Latino voters, especially men under the age of 45. This trend is underscored by Trump’s victory in Starr County, which had not voted for a Republican since 1982 and is more than 97% Hispanic.
About 3 in 10 Black men under the age of 45 voted for Trump, almost the double the share he got in 2020. In addition, this year Democrats also lost their appeal to Latino men, as only half of them voted for Harris compared to about 6 in 10 who voted for Biden in 2020.
Young Black and Latino men viewed the economy as “not so good” or “poor.” While Harris tried to highlight that inflation was dramatically reduced and unemployment remained low, voters’ experience was that prices kept rising.
Alexis Uscanga, a 20-year-old college student from Brownsville, told the AP that rising prices was a key factor for voting for Trump.
“Everything just got a lot more expensive than it once was for me,” Uscanga said. “Gas, grocery shopping even as a college student, everything has gone up in price and that is a big concern for me and other issues like immigration.”
Uscanga grew up selling tamales and used cars, and also made a living washing cars. He said things were better when Trump was president.
“I was not very fond of President Trump because of his rhetoric in 2016 but I look aside from that and how we were living in 2018, 2019, I just felt that we lived a good life no matter what the media was saying and that’s why I started supporting him after that.”
In addition, 6 in 10 Hispanic voters described Trump as a strong leader. Black voters were about twice as likely as in 2020 to describe Trump as a strong leader.
Davin Means, a Black Atlanta voter, told the AP he abstained from voting because he did not feel either Harris or Trump was making the right appeals to Black men. However, he expressed he did not want a woman in the presidency.
“I’m satisfied with the result. I don’t feel slighted. I wasn’t let down. I wasn’t pulling for Trump or Kamala, but I did not want a woman in that position,” he said. And if it were to be a woman, Means said, “I’d rather have a really strong and smart woman, for example, like Judge Judy.”
