Week 6 of NALEO Latino Voter Tracking Poll: Biden Sees 14-Point Increase in Favorability

By:
Oct 13, 2020
12:50 PM

Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden speaks during a Hispanic Heritage Month event, Tuesday, September 15, 2020, at Osceola Heritage Park in Kissimmee, Fla. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

The sixth week of a nine-week 2020 Latino Weekly Tracking Poll from NALEO Educational Fund noted that Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden saw his favorability increase by 14 points, with vice presidential candidate Kamala Harris seeing a 10-point increase.

As a result, the poll noted, Biden now has a 43-point advantage in favorability over President Donald Trump Trump, a 10-point increase since the survey’s first week and the biggest difference between them. Harris has a 30-point favorability advantage over Vice President Mike Pence.

The poll, conducted by Latino Decisions for NALEO, has a margin of error of +/- 4.9 percent. The sixth week of the poll happened from October 4-10. It interviewed 400 Latino registered voters, the same number of voters polled during Weeks 1-4. (Week 5 polled 500 Latino registered voters.) NALEO hopes to have 3,700 unique Latino registered voters surveyed by the poll’s ninth and final week.

A media release about the polls shared some additional Week 6 findings:

Candidate Favorability

  • 67 percent of survey respondents plan on voting for Vice President Joe Biden, and 24 percent plan on voting for President Donald Trump

Issues

  • Health, racism and discrimination, and jobs remain the most important issues among survey respondents, with the following breakdown:
    • COVID-19: 47 percent
    • Lowering healthcare costs: 27 percent (down five points from last week)
    • Racism and discrimination: 26 percent
    • Jobs and wages: 25 percent
    • Stopping discrimination against immigrants and Latinos: 19 percent (up six points from last week)
  • Vice President Joe Biden continues to lead President Donald Trump with respect to whom respondents trust in handling the following issues:
    • Access to affordable healthcare
      • Biden (68 percent)
      • Trump (18 percent)
    • Improving the economy
      • Biden (55 percent)
      • Trump (29 percent)
    • Bringing the country together
      • Biden (67 percent) (high point in the survey)
      • Trump (18 percent)
  • 79 percent of survey respondents believe President Donald Trump contracted COVID-19 because he failed to take the proper precautions and was acting irresponsibly
  • 72 percent disapprove of the way President Trump is handling the COVID-19 response
  • With Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s passing, 70 percent of survey respondents say that the Senate should wait until after the election to let the next president make the nomination for her replacement
    • 30 percent say the Senate should vote on President Trump’s nominee
  • Of the 92 percent of survey respondents who say they have completed the census, most respondents (48 percent this week) say they have responded online

Voter Enthusiasm and Preferences

  • Seven percent of respondents say they have already voted
  • With 75 percent of survey respondents saying they are almost certain they will vote in 2020, 80 percent are either just as or more enthusiastic about voting in 2020 than they were in 2016, with 59 percent say they are more enthusiastic about 2020
  • Survey respondents are split with 51 percent expressing a preference to vote by mail and 49 percent saying they prefer to vote in person
    •  26 percent of respondents say they are not familiar with how to request a mail-in-ballot
    • Among the respondents who plan to vote in person, 43 percent intend to vote early before November 3
    • For those who do plan to vote by mail, 77 percent plan on voting right away
  • 32 percent of survey respondents say they do not trust that mail-in-ballots will be correctly delivered back to county elections departments
  • Over three-quarters of survey respondents (76 percent) think ballot drop boxes are a good idea

Voter Engagement

  • 86 percent of respondents say they are following the news of the presidential election
  • 83 percent (high point in the survey) of survey respondents said they discussed politics with family and friends
  • 55 percent (up eight points from last week) (high point in the survey) of respondents said they have discussed a candidate or political issue on social media
  • 69 percent of respondents say they encouraged family or friends to register to vote
  • Over half of survey respondents (54 percent) (high point in the survey) have been contacted by a representative from a political party, campaign, or other organization in the lead up to Election 2020
    • Of those who said they had been contacted, 62 percent indicate someone from the Democratic Party contacted them, 36 percent indicate someone from the Republican Party, and 28 percent indicate someone from a non-partisan or civic organization

COVID-19 Challenges

  • In addition to the 32 percent of survey respondents who say they know someone who has died from COVID-19, 25 percent say they have had trouble getting access to food, medicine, or basic household needs, as a result of the pandemic, and 44 percent say they had to use savings or retirement money to pay for expenses
  • 28 percent of survey respondents have lost their job as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic

The toplines of the survey are below:

Editor’s Note: Mattt Barreto is a co-founder of Latino Decisions and was hired by the Biden campaign “to direct polling and focus group research for Latino voters,” as noted by his website. He has gone on record with Latino Rebels to say that he is not working on or involved with any other Latino Decisions work during his time with the Biden campaign.