Support for President Donald Trump among Latino voters has jumped eight points in one month in California in one of the most widely-respected polls in the state.
The latest Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC) poll shows that 57% of likely Latino voters in California support Democratic Party nominee Joe Biden, versus 33% who support President Donald Trump.
However, that is a significant shift from September, when 64% said they would vote for Biden and 25% said they would vote for Trump, the Sacramento Bee noted.
The Bee observed that Latino support for Trump in California is now almost as high as support among white voters.
Moreover, Trump’s support among Latinos in California is far higher than it was in 2016, when the October PPIC poll showed that only 12% supported Trump and 71% said they were voting for Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.
The Bee quoted PPIC president Mark Baldassare, who speculated that Trump was doing better because immigration had become less of an issue:
Approval of Trump also rose, from 27% approval among Latino voters in September to 35% approval this month.
Mark Baldassare, president of the Public Policy Institute of California, said the “slight gain” in support for Trump among Latino voters could reflect shifting focus on issues, with discussion of immigration less prominent now.
“Immigration had been a front-and-center issue in the (2016) presidential election and over the last few years. It has really not surfaced much in the last month as an issue,” he said.
It is also possible, however, that Trump is appealing to Latinos on other issues. And while most media outlets said that Trump lost the first debate in September, Spanish-language television viewers reported in one controversial poll that they thought Trump won.
Biden leads overall, 58% to 32%.
Other interesting results in the PPIC survey include a plurality of support (49% vs. 45%) for Proposition 15, which would overturn some of the property tax restrictions of 1978’s popular Proposition 13. (That is on the edge of the poll’s margin of error, which is 4.3%).
However, Proposition 16, which would overturn the state’s ban on racial discrimination under Proposition 209, is losing in the poll, 37% for to 50% against.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). His newest e-book is The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency. His recent book, RED NOVEMBER, tells the story of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary from a conservative perspective. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
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