SACRAMENTO, CA – According to a recent Latino Policy Coalition’s (LPC) nationwide poll, Latino registered voters strongly believe President Obama is better on economic issues than Congressional Republicans.
“This data shows clearly, across party lines, how effective President Obama has been in building trust with Latino voters by addressing the real issues their families face every day,” said LPC Chair Jim Gonzalez.
On the economy: Sixty-five percent of respondents believe President Obama would do a better job handling economic issues facing families than the Republicans in Congress (only 12%), a 53 point advantage.
On jobs: Sixty-one percent of Latino voters believe President Obama would handle keeping and creating well-paying jobs better than the Republicans in Congress (13%), a 48 point advantage.
On both the economy and on jobs: The share of Latinos who believe the Republicans would perform better (13% on economy; and 12% on jobs) is lower than the 19% who self-identify as Republicans.
“In only two years, since the inception of his Presidential campaign, President Obama has successfully accomplished what the Republican Party has been unable or unwilling to do, and that is to engage the fastest growing ethnic voting bloc in the country,” concluded Gonzalez.
About the Latino Policy Coalition
The Latino Policy Coalition is a national non-partisan non-profit consortium of the country’s leading Latino research organizations and scholars. These organizations are dedicated to measuring through nationwide polls public policy issues affecting the Latino community. Chaired by former SF Supervisor Jim Gonzalez, the LPC’s mission is to help define Latino community concerns on key contemporary issues in order to stimulate public policy debate among local, state and national elected officials.
METHODOLOGY
Lake Research Partners designed and administered this survey, which was conducted by phone using professional interviewers. The survey reached 1,000 Latino/a registered voter in the 23 states with the highest Latino population density. A quarter of the interviews were conducted in Spanish. These states include: CA, TX, FL, NY, IL, AZ, NJ, NM, CO, GA, NV, NC, WA, MA, VA, PA, CT, MI, OR, MD, IN, OH, and WI. The survey was conducted July 23 through July 28, 2009. Telephone numbers for the survey were drawn from files of registered voters. The data were weighted slightly by age and education. The margin of error for the survey is +/- 3.1 percentage points.