Latinos helped Donald Trump get re-elected. Why?

The rising influence of Latinos on elections was put on full display when roughly 45% of that group of voters ticked Donald Trump on their ballots this year. 

Betina Cutaia Wilkinson is an associate chair and professor in the Department of Politics and International Affairs at Wake Forest University. She’s studied the Latino vote and says she wasn’t surprised by the outcome, as the electorate’s interests have shifted and changed. 

To explain how and why, Wilkinson spoke with WFDD’s Santiago Ochoa about the conditions that led a historically liberal-leaning voting bloc to turn out in high numbers for such a conservative and polarizing candidate.

Interview Highlights

On why so many Latinos voted for Trump

"So my analysis of U.S. Latino data, as well as North Carolina Latino data, we know that economic issues were at the forefront of what they were thinking about during this election cycle. So the top three issues that were of concern to Latinos in North Carolina and throughout the country were growing inflation and increasing cost of living. Issues of concern when it comes to jobs, job opportunities and the economy. Lack of affordable housing. Health care concerns and then immigration concerns and so no surprise there."

"It makes sense that many were more open to supporting not the incumbent, but Republican candidate, Donald Trump. And there's also a significant amount of political science research that says it's the economy stupid during harsh economic times, people will punish the incumbent and vote for the challenger to bring about some change."

On the historically-high Latino turnout for a Republican candidate

"So in 2004, yes, we had 44% of US Latinos voting for George W. Bush, and today, we had 45% this past election, we had 45% of U.S. Latinos supporting Donald Trump. One thing I'll say is that similar to the situation that we experienced in 2004, Republicans did a good job of mobilizing the Latino base, maybe not as much as through door-to-door mobilization efforts, but through social media efforts, advertising, and we know in 2004 that the George W. Bush really led a campaign that was very much bringing Latinos, Hispanics, at the forefront, their issues and concerns of the forefront."

"Donald Trump didn't do that in the exact same way, with the same framing, but at the same time, ran on the fact that these are harsh economic times, and he has the solutions to the economic issues that we have, and that was central to the concerns that many Latinos had."

On the evolution of the Latino vote and where it's going

"There is no such thing as the Latino vote. Of course, here we are talking about Latinos in general, because, I guess relative to, you know, other racial and ethnic groups. Latinos, as you mentioned, differ by citizenship status, national origin, socioeconomic status, skin tone, experiences with discrimination, reasons for coming to the United States. And all of this does translate to them having distinct political perspectives and voting distinctly."

"But in general, one thing that we have seen these, not this year, but in the early 2000s, was this anti-immigrant rhetoric, anti-immigrant legislation proposed and passed that really developed a sense of immigrant group consciousness among Latinos that increased, overwhelming their support for Democratic candidates."

"That is not necessarily the case today, and so this is definitely a new world that we are living in when it comes to making sense of what works for Latinos and the various different Latino groups that exist and what influences them to turn out to vote and to support Republican versus Democratic candidates."

Santiago Ochoa covers healthcare for WFDD in partnership with Report For America. Follow him on X and Instagram: @santi8a98