POLL: Latino support for Biden slipping amidst Ukraine tension

President Joe Biden’s approval ratings have slightly improved since he delivered his first State of the Union address just six days after Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the invasion of Ukraine – but a new poll reveals that Latino voters still do not approve of the president’s overall job performance.

Although American voters have long rallied around the president in the face of an international crisis – a phenomenon known by political scientists as the rally 'round the flag' effect -- a new McLaughlin poll obtained by ADN America shows that Biden’s response to the Kremlin’s escalation of tensions leading up to the invasion of Ukraine did not increase his popularity amongst Americans generally and Latinos specifically.  

According to a statement released by McLaughlin & Associates, “Normally, at times of crisis the American public rallies to support our President. Currently, this is not the case. After weeks of President Biden wagging the dog against Putin and Russia, he still received only a 41% job approval with 57% disapproval. The same negative job rating as last month.”

Although the 57% disapproval score is the overall average amongst all of those polled, it is also reflective of the Latino response to the question. Similarly, 53% of Latinos said they had a favorable view of the president and 51% responded in the same way about Vice President Kamala Harris.  

The data, however, should come as no surprise considering 64% of all Latino voters say that America is on the wrong track and only 32% believe things are moving in the right direction.

As inflation continues to push gas and food prices up, 57% of those polled also believe that the economy is in recession and 63% of voters say the economy is getting worse – with only 31% responding positively when asked if they believe things are getting better.

There is also reason to believe that Latinos – who have been steadily moving towards the right in recent years – are growing weary of the Democratic Party’s progressive platform and continuous push to the left, which is often reminiscent of the socialist policies that many Latinos attempted to leave behind when they immigrated to the United States.  

When asked if they preferred Free Market Capitalism or Big Government Socialism, 57% of Latinos said they preferred Capitalism while only 22% said they favored Socialism. To drive the point home, 48% of Latinos also said they would most favor a smaller government with fewer services compared to 41% who responded that they would prefer a larger government with many services.

A similar Dec. 8 Wall Street Journal poll found that although Latino voters — who account for around 1 in 8 eligible voters — gave Democrats 60 percent of their vote in the midterm elections, they now appear to be evenly split between the Democratic and Republican parties.  

The GOP appears to have gained a small advantage, however, and data from the McLaughlin poll shows that if the 2024 Presidential election were held today, 49% of Latino voters would now vote for former President Trump compared to 46% who said they would support President Biden. Alternatively, 50% of Latinos would vote for Trump compared to 41% who said they would vote for Vice President Kamala Harris.

However, the new data further shows that 71% of Latinos said they would want to see former President Donald Trump run again in 2024 (compared to 24% who said they would not) and 80% reported that they would vote for him (compared to 19% who said they would not.)

Although pundits have not been able to explain why Latinos have moved closer to the GOP, the new McLaughlin figures point to a recent trend witnessed across the United States in battleground states like Virginia.

Latinos – who are by nature a diverse community in terms of political views and associations – favored Republican Glenn Youngkin by more than 10 points in Virginia and previously indicated that the economy is the most important electoral issue, according to a 2020 Pew Research Center poll.

Republican Sen. Marco Rubio – a long time champion of free-markets and individual freedom – believes that Latinos are no longer responding favorably to the left’s radical platform and that the GOP ultimately offers a better solution for hard-working Latino families.

“We are seeing a change in our politics. Some of that is a reaction to the radical policies of President Biden and the Marxists that control his party,” Sen. Rubio recently told ADN America. “But it is also because Republicans are fighting for things that just make sense for working families: safer communities, more involvement from parents in their kids’ education, bringing good jobs back to America, defending people of faith. These are the things that matter to normal people.”