Former President Trump’s performance among Latino and Hispanic voters offered one of the brightest spots for Republicans on Election Day, as the former president made inroads with the critical voting bloc.
Despite the backlash Trump received for a rally featuring a comedian making racist jokes about Puerto Rico and Latinos, the former president appeared to grow his support among the demographic. Trump narrowly flipped Central Florida’s Osceola County, which has a sizable Puerto Rican population, by just over a point. In comparison, President Biden won the county by nearly 14 points in 2020 and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton won it by nearly 25 points in 2016.
Over in Arizona, the former president appeared to be surpassing his 2020 performance in the counties of Yuma and Santa Cruz, which both have notable Hispanic populations, though votes are still being tabulated in the state.
A CNN exit poll showed Harris winning Latino voters over Trump 52 percent to 46 percent — a single-digit lead compared to President Biden, who outpaced Trump among the group, 65 percent to 32 percent in 2020.
Most notably this cycle, Trump won Latino men by 12 points over Harris — a staggering 35-point swing since 2020, when Biden won the group by 23 points. And while Harris did comfortably win among Latino women, pulling ahead of Trump by 22 points, it’s a stark difference to the 39-point lead that broke for Biden among the cohort just four years ago.
“President Donald J. Trump........