Kamala Harris is losing support from Hispanic voters as Donald Trump gains popularity with the traditionally Democratic demographic - despite years of attempts to paint Trump as a racist.
A New York Times/Siena College poll found Harris ahead with Hispanic voters by 19 points, a "dangerously low" advantage for Democrats, the Times reported.
56% of Hispanic likely voters are backing Harris, against 37% for Trump. Harris' Hispanic support is a stark decline from 2016, when 68% of Hispanics backed presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and 28% backed Trump.
The latest numbers add to Trump's gains with Latinos in 2020, when he won 36% of the Hispanic vote and Joe Biden won 62%. All told, the Democratic advantage with Hispanics has fallen by a net 20 points since 2016.
Among Hispanic men, Trump's support is 45%, just shy of Harris' 48%, reflecting a broader gender gap that has Democrats concerned about losing support with black men.
The poll was taken from Sept. 29 to Oct. 6 among 902 Hispanic voters. The survey has a margin of error of 4.5 percentage points.
The Latino shift toward Trump comes despite years of efforts to paint Trump as racist toward Hispanic immigrants.
30% of Hispanic voters born in the U.S. said they think Trump's immigration rhetoric targets them, while 67% said they do not believe Trump is talking about them.
Harris attempted to court Hispanic voters last week on the Spanish-language TV network Univision, where she redoubled her pledge to seek a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants even as she tries to sound tougher on the border.
That balanced approach mirrors the attitudes of most Hispanic voters, according to the Times survey. More than one-third of Latinos support building a wall and deporting illegal immigrants, but a majority also support providing a pathway to citizenship for all illegal aliens currently living in the U.S.
Trump has doubled down on his tough-on-immigration message in the final days before the election, pledging to mass deport illegal aliens and dangerous criminals who have "conquered" towns like Aurora, Colorado.
According to the Times poll, 50% of Hispanics said crime is "out of control" in big cities, while 35% of Hispanics said Trump's policies helped them personally, and 30% said Trump's policies hurt them.
Overall, Hispanics are "more likely to believe that Mr. Trump’s policies helped them than to believe that Mr. Biden’s policies were beneficial," the Times added in its report.
As Harris struggles to distance herself from Biden's record, it's not surprising that her support with Hispanics is slipping.
