Majority of Latinos did not vote for Donald Trump, new survey shows

A number of Latino organisations are challenging the perception that the majority of Hispanic people voted for US President-elect Donald Trump in the recent election.

UNIDOS, which is the largest Hispanic civil rights and advocacy group, says exit polls weren’t entirely correct in saying that most of the Latinos have voted for the Republican leader who has made deportation of illegal immigrants the central theme of his campaign.

Preliminary reports said 53 percent of Latinos voted for Kamala Harris, and 45 percent for Trump. However, data from Latino groups shows a larger disparity with 62 percent backing the Democratic candidate and just 37 supporting the Republican.

“The mainstream exit polls got Hispanic candidate support wrong, and that is a recurring sampling issue,” said Clarissa Martínez de Castro, UnidosUS Vice President of the Latino Vote Initiative.

The survey UNIDOS cited was done by Latino organisations based on 3,750 interviews, more than the 2,152 people who were interviewed for the national exit poll.

Exit polls are based on interviews of people as they leave the voting stations and immediately share their views.

“We know that the American public, even amidst this year’s results, opposes the Trump agenda of mass deportation, separation of families and his promises to ‘un-document’ and deport some with current legal status,” said Vanessa Cardenas, executive director of America’s Voice.

Since November 5, news reports have been claiming that for the first time Latino men were supporting the Republican party.

But Hispanic groups including BSP Research and Hispanic Federation, said in a report published on Wednesday that the majority of Hispanic men (56 percent) and a supermajority, some 66 percent, of Hispanic women, voted for Harris.

“There is absolutely no valid or accurate evidence indicating that a majority of Latino men voted for Trump,” said Matt Barreto, co-founder of BSP Research.

“While Trump did perform better among younger age groups, this trend does not hold for the overall group.”

Recently, Trump has hinted at his tough immigration policy by appointing hardline figures like Tom Homan and Stephen Miller, who were the architects of the family separation policy in Trump’s previous administration.