One Reason Why More Latinos Are Voting for Trump
Bubba
30 Oct
Using overly academic, left-wing coded words like “Latinx” is not an effective way to win over masses of Latino voters, research suggests. (Fox News)
A new study by Harvard professor Marcel Roman: Researchers reviewed seven studies and found Democratic politicians who use or are linked to the “gender-inclusive” term “Latinx” are less likely to garner the support of Latinos.
Although conservative Latinos are the main force behind this trend, even LGBT-friendly Hispanics don’t show more support for politicians who embrace “Latinx” language.
Related: According to 2023 Pew Research Center survey, only 4% of U.S. Latinos use “Latinx” to describe their community, and a growing share (75%) of those familiar with the term say it shouldn’t be used to describe Hispanics.
Zoom in: There are big class and generational differences dividing Latinos who are hip to “Latinx.”
Overall, only 47% have heard of the term.
But 74% of Latino college graduates, 67% of LGBT Latinos and 60% of Latinos aged 18-29 are familiar with Latinx.
Roman:
The problem for Democrats is that segments of the Latino community that are queerphobic and would otherwise support them are less likely to do so if queerness is made salient through inclusive language.
Ultimately, the solution to the problem we’ve diagnosed requires thinking beyond electoral politics, e.g. political education meant to root out queerphobia in Latino communities…
Former Biden White House communications director Kate Bedingfield on the Biden campaign’s 2020 Latinx messaging:
What we would hear from voters on the ground is it didn‘t necessarily resonate with them. … It felt a lot more like language that people who were professional, political class was using.
Bubba’s Two Cents
Race is becoming less of a dividing line in politics, while factors like gender and, especially, education become more important. Democrats have morphed into the party of the college-educated, but it’s come at a price: it seems like they’ve forgotten how to talk to working class voters. The party’s recent struggles with outreach to Latinos, who are about half as likely as whites to have graduated college, is just one example.
