Donald Trump may say he loves Latino voters, but Latino voters are not loving him back, according to a new poll.
Any Democratic presidential candidate would resoundingly carry the Latino vote over the current Republican front-runner if the 2016 election were held today, according to the latest MSNBC/Telemundo/Marist poll released Friday.
In a hypothetical general election match-up, leading Democrat Hillary Clinton would trounce Trump 69%-22% among Latino voters. Against Vice President Joe Biden, who has not yet said whether he plans to run, Trump would still perform poorly — 20% to Biden’s 71%.
The latest poll results are exactly the scenario that Republican elites had hoped to avoid in the 2016 election. Trump is ranking even worse than Mitt Romney’s disastrous showing among Latinos seen in the 2012 election, when he earned just 27% of their support. The Republican National Committee very publicly stated in its autopsy report following the election that it was imperative for the party to win over Latinos in order to remain competitive in the next presidential race.
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But Trump has defied conventional campaigning and surged to the top of national polls by doing just the opposite — alienating Latino voters. Still, among all registered voters Trump also lags behind the Democratic contenders. In a head-to-head match-up he trails Clinton by 13 points, with 40% to her 53%. In a hypothetical general election against Biden, the vice president prevails 56%-38%. As speculation over a potential presidential bid from Biden has grown stronger in recent weeks, the latest poll suggests he may be more popular than Clinton if he formally entered the race. In head-to-head match-ups against Republican candidates, Biden beats out Clinton with slightly stronger support and by higher margins against Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz. Compared to Clinton: The poll of hypothetical match-ups for 2016 was conducted Aug. 26 to Sept. 9 of 1,115 registered voters. It has a margin of error of +/- 2.9 percentage points. The second match up polled 432 registered Latino voters. It has a margin of error of +/- 6.2 percentage points.
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