by Rebeka Zeljko
Former President Donald Trump is outperforming Vice President Kamala Harris among Hispanic male voters, according to an AP/NORC poll released Friday.
Just 36% of Hispanic male voters said Harris would make a good president while 42% said the same for Trump, according to the poll. Harris is holding on to her lead among Hispanic women voters, with 50% supporting the Democratic candidate while just 30% support Trump.
Trump has managed to gain ground with Hispanic voters and widen the gender gap this election cycle, which could pose a liability for the Harris campaign.
Harris is still favored among Hispanic voters overall, with 43% saying she will make a good president while 40% disagree, according to the poll. Trump trails Harris with 36% of Hispanic voters saying he will make a good president while 53% said he would not.
Among the Hispanic voters surveyed, the economy, healthcare, crime and immigration are their top priorities going into November, according to the poll. Meanwhile Trump is leading Harris when it comes to handling both immigration and the economy, according to a NBC/Telemundo/CNBC poll from September.
Although Harris is still ahead, she is underperforming compared to her Democratic predecessors.
In 2020, President Joe Biden won 65% of the Hispanic vote while Trump secured just 32%, according to the Roper Center. In 2016, former Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton won 66% of the Hispanic vote with Trump pulling in just 28%.
Trump’s progress among Hispanic voters may be a snag for the Harris campaign in key swing states like Arizona and Nevada, with Latinos making up roughly a third of their respective populations.
Democrats have won Nevada for the past four election cycles, while Republicans had a steady winning streak in Arizona since 1952, with the exception of former President Bill Clinton in 1996 and Biden in 2020. Although both states are in play, Trump is polling slightly ahead with a 0.2 point advantage in Nevada and a 0.5 point lead in Arizona, according to RealClearPolling averages.
The AP/NORC poll surveyed 2,028 Hispanic voters nationally from Sept. 12 to Sept. 16 with a margin of error of 3.1 percentage points.
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Rebeka Zeljko is a reporter at Daily Caller News Foundation.
