World | USA
Latino voters favour Democrat
Illinois senator now holds a commanding lead among Hispanics.
- The New York Times Service
- Published: 23:41 July 25, 2008
Washington Barack Obama, who struggled to attract Hispanic voters in the Democratic primary, now has a commanding lead with the group, a study released Thursday found.
Sixty-six per cent of registered Latino voters said they prefer Obama, compared to 23 per cent for John McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee, according to the report by the Pew Hispanic Centre in Washington.
"The support for Obama is quite broad-based," said Susan Minushkin, the centre's deputy director.
Obama enjoys a 76 per cent favourability rating among Latino voters, compared to 44 per cent for McCain, the report said. By comparison, President Bush's favourability rating among the voters was 27 per cent.
Latinos are considered a key voting bloc in several swing states including Florida, Colorado, Nevada and New Mexico.
During the Democratic primary race, Hillary Clinton beat Obama with Latino voters by nearly a 2 to 1 margin.
The Pew survey showed that most of the Hillary voters - 76 per cent - now say they are inclined to vote for Obama, while eight per cent said they are inclined to vote for McCain.
The study also found that 32 per cent of Latinos said that being black would help Obama with Latino voters while eleven per cent said it would hurt him. The majority, 53 per cent, said that Obama's race would make no difference with Latino voters.
In addition, 24 per cent said that being white could hurt McCain with Latino voters, while 12 per cent said that it would help him. The majority, 58 per cent, said it would make no difference.
Surprised analyst
Thomas Mann, a political analyst at the Brookings Institution in Washington, said he was surprised that McCain was not doing better with Latino voters.
"Given his Arizona roots and maverick reputation, I thought he would have more appeal among Latinos than revealed by this survey," Mann said.
McCain's stance on immigration, as well as his military career, has made him popular with many Latinos. McCain spearheaded a measure that would have given many illegal immigrants a pathway to citizenship and created a guest worker programme. That measure failed in the Senate last year.
On the campaign trail, McCain has backed away from the bill, saying that border security must come first, before any legalisation programme.
The Pew survey showed that Latinos have become more firmly Democratic, erasing the gains made by President Bush and the Republicans earlier in the decade. Bush received 40 per cent of the Latino vote in 2004, a record for a Republican presidential candidate. But exit polls showed that Latino support for Republicans in the 2006 midterm elections fell to about 27 per cent.
In the survey, about 65 per cent of Latino registered voters said that they identify with or lean toward the Democratic Party.
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| This article on the national political campaigns in the United States is from The New York Times. It was specially selected and prepared by the editors of The New York Times News Service. |
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