WASHINGTON, DC – SEPTEMBER 06: White House Counsel Don McGahn (R) listens as Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh testifies during the third day of his confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Capitol Hill September 6, 2018 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Less than two months before Latino voters head to the polls for the 2018 midterm elections, the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials (NALEO) Educational Fund and Latino Decisions released the results of the second wave of its ten-week tracking poll of Latino registered voters.
Results from the second week of the NALEO Educational Fund/Latino Decisions Weekly Political Tracking Poll offer exclusive insights into the Latino electorate this year, including views on U.S. Supreme Court Nominee Brett Kavanaugh, Presidential and Congressional favorability, political party evaluations, issue priorities, and more. Each week a fresh sample of 250 registered voters will be added and combined with the previous 250 interviews to create a rolling average. This week’s poll was conducted by Latino Decisions from September 5 – 10, 2018 (with a margin of error of 4.4 percent).
“Both parties still have a lot of work to do educating the Latino electorate about Kavanaugh’s nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court and their visions for moving the nation forward,” stated Arturo Vargas, NALEO Educational Fund chief executive officer. “Election Day is less than two months away, and Democrats and Republicans must make their case to Latino voters by directly engaging them on the issues that matter most if they want their support this November.”
“I think the Kavanaugh hearings might have struck a nerve with Latino voters,” said Matt Barreto, co-founder of Latino Decisions and Professor at UCLA. “Not just the secrecy and refusal to disclose his documents, but also Kavanaugh’s support for an untouchable President. Latinos have a steadfast commitment to democracy and transparency and the Kavanaugh hearings did not sit well with many Latinos.”
Key findings include:
- Latino voters support delaying Kavanaugh nomination process.Nearly half of Latino registered voters (48 percent) believe the nomination process for U.S. Supreme Court Nominee Brett Kavanaugh in the U.S. Senate should be delayed until approximately 100,000 pages of documents are released.
- Kavanaugh involvement in President Clinton impeachment charges are a concern. When made aware that Kavanaugh was part of the legal team that brought impeachment changes against President Bill Clinton, two-thirds of Latino voters stated that his involvement made them less supportive of his nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court.
- Support for Presidential immunity is low. Results show that 70 percent of Latino registered voters believe that a President should not be protected from being charged with a crime while in office.
- Kavanaugh is still a relatively unknown. The more Latino voters knew about Kavanaugh’s background, the more likely they are to oppose his nomination, but a significant portion of the Latino electorate still does not know who he is (12 percent) or has no opinion of him (29 percent).
- Both parties need to do a better job explaining their agenda and policy priorities. There is still an information void when it comes to the parties and Latino voters. Large percentages of Latino voters do not feel that the two parties have done a good enough job explaining what they stand for and why they should support them (40 percent for Democrats; 57 percent for Republicans).
- Latino voters need to be engaged. The Latino electorate is still being ignored, with 58 percent of Latino voters reporting that they have not been contacted by a candidate, campaign or party. Among Latino voters who say they have been contacted by a party, 51 percent say it was by Democrats, while 28 percent it was by Republicans. Both parties have a lot of work to do in the lead up to Election Day.
As we near Election 2018, NALEO Educational Fund will continue its efforts to ensure that Latino voters have the information necessary to make their voices heard at the ballot box. These efforts include operating our toll-free bilingual hotline 1-888-VE-Y-VOTA (1-888-839-8682) that provides Latino voters with information on every aspect of the electoral process, from registering to vote, to voter ID requirements, to finding their polling place. On Election Day, the hotline will be connected to the Election Protection efforts and 1-866-OUR-VOTE, offering Latino voters nationwide a bilingual resource to get assistance and report any problems they may experience at the polls.
To view the methodology and full toplines for week two of the ten-week tracking poll, see below.
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About NALEO Educational Fund
NALEO Educational Fund is the nation’s leading non-partisan, non-profit organization that facilitates the full participation of Latinos in the American political process, from citizenship to public service.
About Latino Decisions
Latino Decisions is the nation’s leading polling and research firm on Latino Americans, being called the “gold-standard in Latino American polling” by Time Magazine, and has implemented its weekly political tracking poll of Latino voters every cycle since 2010.
