Miami-Dade support for Trump among the highest in the country
While Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton maintains a strong lead among Hispanic voters in Florida and nationally, Latino support for Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election has reached a new low in the state and around the country, according to the New Latino Voice voter poll.
Support for Trump among Hispanics in Miami-Dade County, however, remains among the highest in the country for the second week in a row, according to a weekly public opinion poll conducted by FIU in partnership with Adsmovil, a mobile advertising company that specializes in reaching Latinos in the U.S.
“Trump has reached a new floor at the national level with only 10.7 percent reporting that they would vote for the Republican candidate,” said Eduardo Gamarra, political science professor at FIU and director of the Latino Public Opinion Forum at the Steven J. Green School of International and Public Affairs. The forum is a project of the Jack D. Gordon Institute for Public Policy and the first university initiative in Florida to systematically study the growth and impact of the Latino population.
“At the same time as support for Trump has fallen, Hillary Clinton’s numbers climbed more than two percentage points,” Gamarra said. “As we have noted throughout this exercise, Clinton has an iron clad relationship with Latinos overall.”
The drop in support for Trump could be in response to controversial comments the candidate continues to make about immigration, including during a campaign stop in Arizona, as well as his recent visit to Mexico, Gamarra said.
In contrast to the national trend, Hispanic voters in Miami-Dade support him at a higher level than in the rest of the country, with more than 15 percent saying they would vote for him. Statewide, only nine percent of Latino voters support Trump, lower than the national figure.
Among voters 65 and over in Miami-Dade, support for Trump is even higher – more than 20 percent. Latino men in Miami-Dade also support Trump at a higher rate than nationally – nearly 20 percent.
“In Florida and in Miami Dade, a greater proportion of older Latinos is attracted to Trump,” Gamarra said. “This is consistent with what we noted several months ago regarding older Latinos and their view of newer arrivals.”
Support for Clinton among Latinos statewide continues to grow and preference for an unnamed “other candidate” has again surpassed Trump. The poll of voters in Miami-Dade showed a small decline in support for Clinton among Latinos relative to the rest of Florida – 71 percent to 77 percent statewide.
To date, FIU and Adsmovil have conducted 22 weekly polls, reaching more than 200,000 Hispanics in the U.S. using geolocation technology through mobile devices.
The Latino Public Opinion Forum builds upon FIU’s long-running Cuba Poll by broadening the scope of inquiry to other rapidly growing Latino populations, including Central Americans, Mexicans and Puerto Ricans. The initiative reaches Hispanics through social media, online forums and mobile technology, as well as traditional survey methods such as focus groups, face to face and telephone interviews.
