Washington
24 July 2008
A new survey finds Hispanic voters in the United States overwhelminglyback Democrat Barack Obama over Republican John McCain in thepresidential race. VOA's Michael Bowman reports from Washington.
SenatorMcCain represents Arizona, a state that borders Mexico and has a largeLatin American immigrant community. Unlike Senator Obama, who isrelatively new to the national spotlight, McCain is well known as alongtime advocate of many causes that are popular among Hispanics,including comprehensive immigration reform.
It is therefore allthe more surprising that the latest poll shows Hispanics backing Obamaover McCain by a ratio of nearly three-to-one.
The survey ofmore than 2,000 registered voters of Latin American descent wasconducted by the Washington-based Pew Hispanic Center. Sixty-sixpercent of respondents said they support Senator Obama, compared to 23percent for Senator McCain. Seventy-six percent of respondents saidthey view Obama favorably, while 44 percent said they have a favorableview of McCain.
Although the U.S. Hispanic community is diverse,from Cuban-Americans in Florida to Mexican-Americans in California, thePew survey showed little variance among the segments of the communitythat were identified in the poll.
"This support for Obama isquite broad-based, and there are few differences within demographicgroups. We did not detect important differences in support for BarackObama between Hispanic registered voters who were born in the UnitedStates and those who are immigrants. We also did not detect differencesin support for Obama between Latino voters who preferred to beinterviewed in Spanish and those who preferred to be interviewed inEnglish," said Susan Minushkin, the Pew Hispanic Center's deputydirector.
The survey numbers seem to indicate a dramaticturnaround in Obama's fortunes among Hispanics. During the primaryseason, they voted overwhelmingly for Obama's rival, Senator HillaryClinton. Some analysts at the time suggested a racial component to thetrend, given friction and economic competition between Hispanics andAfrican Americans for lower-paying jobs.
But the Pew surveyfinds only 11 percent of Hispanics view Obama's race as a detriment,while more than half say the fact that he is black makes no differenceto them. A similar proportion said McCain's race is unimportant.
Minushkinsays Obama appears to have successfully picked up the backing ofHispanic former-Clinton supporters.
"Seventy-six percent of those whovoted for Clinton in the primaries now say they would vote for or areleaning toward Obama. This compared favorably with the 70 percent ofnon-Hispanic white Clinton voters who said they have transferred theirallegiance to Obama. Finally, more than half of all Latino voters saythat Obama is better for Hispanics, compared with just seven percentwho say that McCain would be better for Hispanics," she said.
Thesurvey found Hispanics rate economic and financial issues as their topconcerns, mirroring polls with similar results for the nation as awhole.
When it comes to party preference, 65 percent ofrespondents in the Pew survey self-identify as Democrats orDemocratic-leaning voters, compared to 26 percent who considerthemselves Republicans or Republican-leaning voters. Historically,Hispanics have tended to vote Democratic, although President Bush madesignificant inroads among Hispanics in his successful presidentialbids, winning 40 percent of the Hispanic vote in 2004.
Hispanicsnow stand as America's largest minority group, accounting for roughly15 percent of the U.S. population. Although many Hispanics do not vote,either because they lack citizenship or are not of legal voting age,those that are registered do represent a critical voting bloc inbattleground states such as Florida, Colorado and New Mexico that couldprove decisive in the November election.