A recent New York Times/Siena College poll of Hispanic voters shows signs of a 2020 repeat. The poll found Democrats leading among Hispanic voters by 24 points, 56 percent to 32 percent, on the generic Congressional ballot, while President Biden led former President Donald Trump by 20 points in a hypothetical 2024 rematch. New York Times Chief Political Analyst Nate Cohn noted in a recent article that the survey results are reminiscent of the 2020 election, stating that “they’re quite a bit worse for Democrats than in years like 2016 or 2018, when the party won Hispanic voters by 40 points or more.”

Cohn argues that, while Democrats do seem to be holding on to their most recent levels of support among Hispanic voters, the poll finds that many of the conditions for additional Republican gains may be in place:: “In the last presidential election, Mr. Trump clearly made big inroads among Hispanic voters. There have been plenty of signs that Republicans are consolidating or even building upon those gains.”

Pundits across the country are pontificating as to why this shift is happening. Is it about the economy, immigration, crime, “wokeness” or even the term Latinx? Jennifer Medina, a national politics reporter for The New York Times wrote that the Republican Party has been reaching out to Latino voters for decades, particularly in Texas, stating: “If Latinos believe that Democrats take them for granted, they are more likely to vote for Republican candidates, according to analysis from Equis Research, a Washington-based firm that focuses on Latino voters across the country.”

In the hotly contested battleground of Arizona, where Republicans are nearly guaranteed to pick up one or more House seats, a record number of Latinos are expected to vote in the midterm election. KOLD reporter Bud Foster noted in a recent article that an estimated 644,600 Latino voters will cast a ballot in the 2022 midterm elections in Arizona this year: , “In 2002 in Arizona, 155,000 Latinos cast a ballot in the state. If this year’s estimate holds up, it would be a more than a fourfold increase in only two decades.”

In another closely watched swing state, Latino voters will have a major impact on the results. According to the Pew Research Center in 2020, Latinos made up nearly 20 percent of eligible voters in Nevada, which puts Nevada’s Latino electoral share sixth in the country. Natalie Cullen, a reporter for PBS Nevada, noted in a recent article that, according to polling, inflation, jobs and the economy are still top of the list for Latino voters, stating, “While there are small businesses owned by Latinos in Las Vegas, the majority of Latinos are employed in hospitality, service industries and construction and all of those sectors are booming right now. Because of that,  labor has a lot of leverage and that might benefit the Democrats in this election cycle.”

Peter Guzman, the president of the Las Vegas Latin Chamber of Commerce, said in a recent report that he has seen reports in the news that Hispanics are “running away” from Democrats and toward Republicans – but he doesn’t necessarily think that is true. “Many of the Latinas that he has spoken with, the so-called ‘soccer moms,’ are furious at school closures during the height of the pandemic.” He said many of them are paying more attention to politics, which makes them more informed voters and he believes it means their votes are up for grabs.

In Florida, where Democrats had kept the state competitive years past, Latino voters rank third in the nation’s Latino electorate. Steve Lemongello, the Orlando Sentinel's senior content editor, noted in a recent report that Florida Democrats face big hurdles in wooing Hispanic voters: “Republicans were able to effectively target Hispanic voters on issues ranging from the economy to COVID-19 lockdowns to crime. Another challenge Democrats face is that both Central and South Florida Hispanics have been inundated with misinformation on both Spanish language radio and social media.”

The increase in Latin influence is due in part to the Latino community  not being a one-issue voting bloc. Immigration has always been the predominate issue for Hispanics but other, more mainstream issues, like the economy, education and jobs that pay well enough to maintain a high standard of living, are issues that now claim the Latino vote.