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Every week, El American will make a quick analysis of the polls that give the most interesting data on the state of America’s public opinion. In this second edition of “The Pulse of America,” we are going to check the latest CBS survey, which shows Latinos are in open revolt against the Joe Biden, a worrying sign for Democrats ahead of this year’s midterms.
The CBS-YouGov poll confirms the ongoing shift from Latino voters away from the Democratic Party and Joe Biden as president. Similarly, the poll shows that Hispanics strongly disapprove of the President on all important issues that concern them.
Although Biden’s fall among Latinos is becoming one of the most noticeable trends in U.S. politics, Biden’s unpopularity is shared among the wider American electorate. The CBS poll shows that only 42% of citizens approve of the way Biden is doing his job. Meanwhile, 58% of respondents disapprove. These numbers mark a strong decline in the President’s numbers since he took office in 2021, when his approval numbers were over 60%.
Latinos are in open revolt against Biden in almost every issue
Hispanic’s attitudes towards Biden are very similar to those of the nation as a whole. The survey shows that 54% of Hispanics disapprove of the President’s job, with an astonishing 32% saying they strongly disapprove of Biden as President. These numbers illustrate the deep problem Democrats have with the Latino electorate, which has been a fundamental rock for Democrats’ election chances for decades.
Biden’s numbers are even worse among Latinos when they evaluate the President’s performance in policy areas. The only issue where Biden is polling relatively well among Latinos is in the handling of COVID, and even then only 38% of Latinos think this is a high priority issue for them.
That is the only silver lining for Biden, as a majority of Hispanics disapprove of his handling of the war in Ukraine (58%), the economy (60%), inflation (69%), immigration (60%), climate change (55%), and crime (56%).
To make matters worse for Biden, all the issues where Biden is polling underwater with the Hispanic community are more important for Latinos than the only issue where he enjoys positive numbers.
Inflation is at the top of the mind of Latino voters
Crucially, two of the top issues (inflation and the economy) for Latinos are the ones where Biden is having its worst polling numbers. The survey shows that a whopping 78% of Hispanics think that the economy is a high-priority issue for them. Similarly, 69% think inflation is an issue of high priority for them.
Both issues are, as expected, highly correlated. Hispanics think that the top two reasons why the economy is not doing well are the rising prices of goods and services (82%) and the hike in gas prices (79%), which might help explain why Biden is being poorly evaluated over his handling of the economy despite some positive numbers on this month’s job report.
Another set of bad polling data for the Biden White House, a substantial majority of Latinos (63%) think Biden is not doing enough to combat high gas prices. However, some good news for Biden is that more Hispanics blame big oil companies than him for the recent hike in gas prices. The fight for the Latino vote has been ramping up since the 2020 election when former President Donald Trump managed to significantly increase the GOP’s vote share with the Latino electorate nationwide.
Most recently, Republican victories in South Texas and the dreadful poll numbers of Biden with Latinos have made Hispanics a key target for the GOP’s outreach efforts as the NRSC announced a new multi-million dollar initiative to get the Latino vote in the 2022 midterm election
Daniel is a Political Science and Economics student from the University of South Florida. He worked as a congressional intern to Rep. Gus Bilirakis (FL-12) from January to May 2020. He also is the head of international analysis at Politiks // Daniel es un estudiante de Cs Políticas y Economía en la Universidad del Sur de la Florida. Trabajo como pasante legislativo para el Representate Gus Bilirakis (FL-12) desde enero hasta mayo del 2020. Daniel también es el jefe de análisis internacional de Politiks.