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For Some Latino Voters, Trump's Appeal Helped Keep Election Close

Brian Padden

   Although projected to lose the U.S. election, President Donald Trump
   made the race closer than expected, in part by gaining a higher
   percentage of minority voters this time around, especially in the
   growing Latino or Hispanic population, than he did in 2016.

   The increase nationally in the Hispanic vote for Trump, from 28% in
   2016 to 32% this year according to exit polls, refuted the assumption
   by many Democrats that Latinos would vote overwhelmingly against Trump
   based solely on his harsh anti-immigrant rhetoric and policies.

   "I think that we've got to, going forward, really disaggregate that
   Latino vote. It is not a [singular] vote," said Elaine Kamarck, a
   political analyst at the Brookings Institution.

   Republican values

   Despite Trump's improved showing, Latinos backed Biden roughly 2-to-1,
   with many expressing strong opposition to the Trump administration's
   policy of separating migrant children from their families at the
   U.S.-Mexico border.

   The Hispanic electorate, however, is overwhelmingly Catholic or
   conservative Christian, with many in agreement with Trump and the
   Republican Party's opposition to gay marriage and abortion.

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