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Vice President Kamala Harris, the presumptive Democratic nominee, is quickly gaining on former President Donald Trump among Hispanic voters, a new poll shows.
While majorities of Hispanic voters have supported Democrats in the past, many have recently been moving towards the Republican Party.
Some polls have indicated that Trump was gaining on President Joe Biden among this group of voters before Biden decided to step aside as the Democratic nominee.
However, a new New York Times/Siena College poll sees Harris leading Trump by 19 percentage points among Hispanic voters – 57 to 38 per cent. In June, the same pollster found that Biden was leading among Hispanic voters by a single point – 45 to 44 per cent.
Biden dropped out of the race on Sunday, July 21 following nearly a month of increasing calls for him to go after his disastrous debate performance on June 27 in Atlanta, where hen appeared frail and confused, and lost his train of thought on several occasions.
Compared with Biden, Harris is gaining against Trump after Democrats were quick to coalesce around her campaign. She has secured enough delegates to claim the nomination at the Democratic National Convention next month. Her candidacy has generated significant enthusiasm among Democrats after most voters have been saying for months that they didn’t want a Trump-Biden rematch.
Before she became the presumptive nominee, Harris was polling about as well, or slightly behind, Biden. But since ascending to the top of the ticket, Harris appears to be winning over some who weren’t supporting the president.
Among registered voters, the New York Times/Siena College poll found a tied race with Harris and Trump each getting 42 per cent. In the survey of likely voters, Harris leads by one point – 44 to 43 per cent.
Meanwhile, third-party and independent candidates are losing support. Robert F Kennedy Jr, who got nine per cent in the June poll, got five per cent this month. Similarly, Jill Stein of the Green Party got two per cent in June but less than one per cent support in July.
Support among Hispanic voters is vital for Harris to win in a number of swing states, particularly Arizona and Nevada.
Harris is still behind Biden’s 2020 result among Hispanic voters. The president beat Trump by 33 points – 65 to 32 per cent – with Hispanic voters in the last election, a Times exit poll revealed. In 2016, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton won Hispanic voters by 36 points – 65 to 29 per cent.
