# How did Trump get so many Hispanic voters? **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [November 9, 2016, 5:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-trump-get-so-many-hispanic-voters/771133 "2016-11-09T05:07:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Duke\_of\_Rat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Duke\_of\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duke_of_Rat)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2016, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-trump-get-so-many-hispanic-voters/771133/41 "2016-11-10T00:28:18Z")
> [@syncrolecyne](#): > > I live in South Texas, where about 90-95% of people are Hispanic. > > In my county, Trump received about 29% of the vote, which almost certainly means at least 25%, or one in four Hispanic votes. I think the gap is much stronger with male voters. This is anecdotal, but I would say at least half the working-class, blue collar Hispanic men I know who voted (which would be about half that subset) probably voted for Trump. They probably voted for Trump for the same reasons similar men in Indiana or Michigan did. I live in a different part of the state with ~20% non-white population, most of those being Hispanic. Hillary got less than 10% of the vote here, less than Obama got. I’ve heard green card Mexicans talk down about the illegals, too, but the one Mexican national I discussed the election with said he was voting for Hillary. ---
**Author:** ![CarnalK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnalk/32/486_2.png) [@CarnalK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CarnalK)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2016, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-trump-get-so-many-hispanic-voters/771133/42 "2016-11-10T00:30:16Z")
> [@Fotheringay-Phipps](#): > > I think one part that people may be missing is that as any immigrant group becomes more assimilated, they tend to identify more and more as Americans and less and less as their ethnic identity group. So it’s possible that as Latinos are here for longer, they vote less based on their Latino identity and more based on concerns that they might share with other Americans, e.g. Trump voters. > > I suspect that this may be a counter to the notion that the declining number of whites in America dooms the Republican Party. Because over that same time, they may gain increasing shares of the minority vote. Unless a given ethnic group fails to assimilate. (That’s why divisive racial rabble-rousing helps the Democrats, in causing members of ethnic groups to see themselves in terms of their ethnic identities.) Don’t get ahead of yourself. Trump still did very poorly objectively with Latino and Black voters just not as shitty as expected. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2016, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-trump-get-so-many-hispanic-voters/771133/43 "2016-11-10T00:34:41Z")
> [@Fotheringay-Phipps](#): > > I think one part that people may be missing is that as any immigrant group becomes more assimilated, they tend to identify more and more as Americans and less and less as their ethnic identity group. So it’s possible that as Latinos are here for longer, they vote less based on their Latino identity and more based on concerns that they might share with other Americans, e.g. Trump voters. Can that be fairly translated as “once any immigrant group is here long enough, they eventually become racist assholes, just like the ones who vote for Trump”? If so, may I suggest that it might be beneficial for immigrants to spend periodic amounts of time out of the country to gain some perspective and restore their sanity? ---
**Author:** ![Fotheringay-Phipps](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/d9b06d/32.png) [@Fotheringay-Phipps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fotheringay-Phipps)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2016, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-trump-get-so-many-hispanic-voters/771133/44 "2016-11-10T00:40:28Z")
> [@CarnalK](#): > > Don’t get ahead of yourself. Trump still did very poorly objectively with Latino and Black voters just not as shitty as expected. He did better than Romney among Hispanics, despite a message that was ostensibly hostile. Blacks are a different story. Blacks are not becoming more assimilated in this country. The opposite, if anything, of late. ---
**Author:** ![eno801](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/c2a13f/32.png) [@eno801](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eno801)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2016, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-trump-get-so-many-hispanic-voters/771133/45 "2016-11-10T00:40:30Z")
> [@wolfpup](#): > > Can that be fairly translated as “once any immigrant group is here long enough, they eventually become racist assholes, just like the ones who vote for Trump”? > > If so, may I suggest that it might be beneficial for immigrants to spend periodic amounts of time out of the country to gain some perspective and restore their sanity? nice now I’m a racist asshole, because I care about border security, the supreme court and the 2nd ammendment. Even though I’m first generation Mexican! and that ladies and gentlemen is one reason Hillary lost. Keep pushing that narrative that anyone who didn’t vote for her is racist, sexist, islamophic, etc. ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2016, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-trump-get-so-many-hispanic-voters/771133/46 "2016-11-10T00:44:08Z")
> [@wolfpup](#): > > Can that be fairly translated as “once any immigrant group is here long enough, they eventually become racist assholes, just like the ones who vote for Trump”? That could be one interpretation. It could not be “fairly translated” as anything of the sort. A number of people are repeating the errors of those who opposed the Tea Party. It was common for some (historically ignorant) people to claim that the Tea Party’s opposition to Obama was based solely (or primarily) on his race. They ignored the fact that the beginnings of the Tea Party got going under G W Bush and in opposition to G W Bush before the 2008 election season even began in 2007. There were certainly many Tea Party types who opposed Obama based on his ancestry, just as many Trump supporters did like his xenophobic comments. However, asserting that racism was the sole or primary reason for the popularity of either the Tea Party or Trump is the sort of failed logic that probably led to Trump’s victory, as too many of Trump’s opponents attacked an aspect of Trump with which many (perhaps most) of his supporters did not agree, basing their support on other aspects of his rhetoric. ---
**Author:** ![CarnalK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnalk/32/486_2.png) [@CarnalK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CarnalK)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2016, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-trump-get-so-many-hispanic-voters/771133/47 "2016-11-10T01:00:01Z")
> [@wolfpup](#): > > Can that be fairly translated as “once any immigrant group is here long enough, they eventually become racist assholes, just like the ones who vote for Trump”? That is an incredibly unfair translation, actually. Well established Mexican Americans wanting what’s best for their home country over new immigrants is them being racist? ---
**Author:** ![CarnalK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnalk/32/486_2.png) [@CarnalK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CarnalK)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2016, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-trump-get-so-many-hispanic-voters/771133/48 "2016-11-10T01:04:50Z")
> [@Fotheringay-Phipps](#): > > He did better than Romney among Hispanics, despite a message that was ostensibly hostile. Iow, not as shitty as Romney but shitty nonetheless. > [@](#): > > Blacks are a different story. Blacks are not becoming more assimilated in this country. The opposite, if anything, of late. You’re quickly losing credibility now. Blacks are fully assimilated -they are basically part of the founding of the country. And their voter participation in the last 20 years has come up to near parity of whites. ---
**Author:** ![pool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pool/32/4152_2.png) [@pool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pool)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2016, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-trump-get-so-many-hispanic-voters/771133/49 "2016-11-10T01:20:18Z")
Well I believe at least one poll I read said that Hispanics of Cuban descent were more likely to vote Trump than all the other Hispanics, there are a lot of Cubans in Florida which was a key state for Trump to win, I’d also wager they are more successful in general than the majority of Mexican-descent Hispanics in Florida and would be more likely to vote than the Mexican American workers in Florida who often are very poor, work labor-intensive jobs, and often know little to no English. My wife’s family is of Cuban descent, her father’s family actually fled in 1959 when Castro took over, they are largely successful and they are Trump supporters. They really were rooting for Rubio in the beginning but after Trump got the nomination they supported him, they have conservative values, and are Catholic. ---
**Author:** ![DerekMichaels00](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f14d63/32.png) [@DerekMichaels00](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DerekMichaels00)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2016, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-trump-get-so-many-hispanic-voters/771133/50 "2016-11-10T01:22:31Z")
> [@CarnalK](#): > > Blacks are fully assimilated -they are basically part of the founding of the country. And their voter participation in the last 20 years has come up to near parity of whites. not to mention how blacks play a massive role in sports, culture, and of course, the Oval Office until January 20. Hell, even when Trump takes office, Ben Carson will probably be one of his appointees. ---
**Author:** ![Mr\_Quatro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/bc8723/32.png) [@Mr\_Quatro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr_Quatro)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2016, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-trump-get-so-many-hispanic-voters/771133/51 "2016-11-10T01:24:08Z")
How did Trump get so many Hispanic voters? because they were here legally and they wanted their brothers and sisters jobs that were not here legally. ---
**Author:** ![DigitalC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ebca7d/32.png) [@DigitalC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DigitalC)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2016, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-trump-get-so-many-hispanic-voters/771133/52 "2016-11-10T01:35:08Z")
> [@tomndebb](#): > > That could be one interpretation. > It could not be “fairly translated” as anything of the sort. > > A number of people are repeating the errors of those who opposed the Tea Party. It was common for some (historically ignorant) people to claim that the Tea Party’s opposition to Obama was based solely (or primarily) on his race. They ignored the fact that the beginnings of the Tea Party got going under G W Bush and in opposition to G W Bush before the 2008 election season even began in 2007. There were certainly many Tea Party types who opposed Obama based on his ancestry, just as many Trump supporters did like his xenophobic comments. However, asserting that racism was the sole or primary reason for the popularity of either the Tea Party or Trump is the sort of failed logic that probably led to Trump’s victory, as too many of Trump’s opponents attacked an aspect of Trump with which many (perhaps most) of his supporters did not agree, basing their support on other aspects of his rhetoric. Opposition to Bush in 2007 as a result of his push for immigration reform. ---
**Author:** ![CarnalK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnalk/32/486_2.png) [@CarnalK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CarnalK)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2016, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-trump-get-so-many-hispanic-voters/771133/53 "2016-11-10T02:30:35Z")
> [@Mr\_Quatro](#): > > How did Trump get so many Hispanic voters? > > because they were here legally and they wanted their brothers and sisters jobs that were not here legally. Interesting. Did their brothers and sisters also sleep with their spouses? What other insights have you found while watching Telenovelas? ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2016, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-trump-get-so-many-hispanic-voters/771133/54 "2016-11-10T02:55:42Z")
> [@DigitalC](#): > > Opposition to Bush in 2007 as a result of his push for immigration reform. By 2007, there was a significant number of people who were opposed to his economic policies. The attitude toward the invasion of Iraq was already starting to go south and his “let’s run two simultaneous wars on reduced taxes” plan was beginning to irritate a number of Conservatives. (They did not want to bring back the taxes, just shut down the wars and cut funding to the “lazy poor,” but they were making the noises that would eventually morph into the Tea Party.) [Tea Party movement](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tea_Party_movement#Background) > [@](#): > > In 2002, a Tea Party movement website was designed and published by the CSE [_Citizens for a Sound Economy, founded 1984 by the brothers Koch_] at web address [www.usteaparty.com](http://www.usteaparty.com), and stated “our US Tea Party is a national event, hosted continuously online and open to all Americans who feel our taxes are too high and the tax code is too complicated.” The site did not take off at the time. In 2003, Dick Armey became the chairman of CSE after retiring from Congress. In 2004, Citizens for a Sound Economy split into FreedomWorks, for 501c4 advocacy activity, and the Americans for Prosperity Foundation. Dick Armey stayed as chairman of FreedomWorks, while David Koch stayed as Chairman of the Americans for Prosperity Foundation. The two organizations would become key players in the Tea Party movement from 2009 onward. Americans for Prosperity and FreedomWorks were “probably the leading partners” in the September 2009 Taxpayer March on Washington, also known as the “9/12 Tea Party,” according to The Guardian. > > Fox News Channel commentator Juan Williams has said that the Tea Party movement emerged from the “ashes” of Ron Paul’s 2008 presidential primary campaign. Indeed, Ron Paul has stated that its origin was on December 16, 2007, when supporters held a 24-hour record breaking, “moneybomb” fundraising event on the Boston Tea Party’s 234th anniversary, but that others, including Republicans, took over and changed some of the movement’s core beliefs. Writing for [Slate.com](http://Slate.com), Dave Weigel has argued in concurrence that, in his view, the “first modern Tea Party events occurred in December 2007, long before Barack Obama took office, and they were organized by supporters of Rep. Ron Paul,” with the movement expanding and gaining prominence in 2009 ---
**Author:** ![Corry\_El](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ecae2f/32.png) [@Corry\_El](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Corry_El)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2016, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-trump-get-so-many-hispanic-voters/771133/55 "2016-11-10T03:18:13Z")
> [@CarnalK](#): > > That is an incredibly unfair translation, actually. Well established Mexican Americans wanting what’s best for their home country over new immigrants is them being racist? It may not be fair but is consistent with the invective thrown at whites who ask how or if large scale immigration is in their interest, and why they should vote for it if they aren’t convinced it is. But rather than being given a good answer they’re as likely to be told, ‘shut up, racist’. That is when they are not being called stupid for ‘not voting in their own interest’, assumed to be to vote for the Democrats. 🙂 There are fair criticisms IMO to be made of Trump, plenty, and to some degree those who support him at least highly positively (as opposed to as ‘lesser of evils’). But there’s also a bad habit by some on the left of trying to win arguments, without really having them, by calling people racists if they don’t agree on issues in any way related to race. Or alternatively, perhaps the constant accusation of racism is a good base mobilization tool in campaigns (then again maybe not, based on the depressed turnout of Democratic constituencies this time, which is what did Hillary in more than any real surge in turnout by GOP friendly groups). But spin has to be distinguished from reality, which tends to be more complicated. Post election is the time to do so IMO. ---
**Author:** ![SlackerInc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slackerinc/32/275_2.png) [@SlackerInc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlackerInc)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2016, 5:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-trump-get-so-many-hispanic-voters/771133/56 "2016-11-10T05:34:01Z")
> [@tomndebb](#): > > By 2007, there was a significant number of people who were opposed to his economic policies. The attitude toward the invasion of Iraq was already starting to go south and his “let’s run two simultaneous wars on reduced taxes” plan was beginning to irritate a number of Conservatives. (They did not want to bring back the taxes, just shut down the wars and cut funding to the “lazy poor,” but they were making the noises that would eventually morph into the Tea Party.) > > [Tea Party movement](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tea_Party_movement#Background) I agree with you, and the fanatical opposition to Obama wasn’t so different from that Bill Clinton faced with all the accusations of murdering Vince Foster and so on. I agree that most (not all) of it was about being a Democrat, not specifically about being black. > [@Corry\_El](#): > > There are fair criticisms IMO to be made of Trump, plenty, and to some degree those who support him at least highly positively (as opposed to as ‘lesser of evils’). But there’s also a bad habit by some on the left of trying to win arguments, without really having them, by calling people racists if they don’t agree on issues in any way related to race. This might be a fair argument when dealing with ordinary Republicans. But for chrissakes, the Republicans’ _own House Speaker_ called Trump guilty of “textbook racism”! ---
**Author:** ![Fotheringay-Phipps](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/d9b06d/32.png) [@Fotheringay-Phipps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fotheringay-Phipps)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2016, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-trump-get-so-many-hispanic-voters/771133/57 "2016-11-10T14:34:45Z")
> [@CarnalK](#): > > Iow, not as shitty as Romney but shitty nonetheless. True. But again, he was swimming upstream, against a media narrative that had him as bigoted etc. > [@](#): > > You’re quickly losing credibility now. Blacks are fully assimilated -they are basically part of the founding of the country. And their voter participation in the last 20 years has come up to near parity of whites. You may have misunderstood what I meant by assimilated, in context. What I’m talking about is the extent to which a person sees themselves as being part of some smaller subgroup as distinct from the broader population, and how this influences whether they vote based on issues that are more unique to that subgroup versus the broader population. It has nothing to do with how high their level of voter participation is, and while correlated with length of time in the country, it’s not a perfect correlation and is influenced by other factors. You’ll notice that pollsters and political analysts focus on the black vote, and the Hispanic vote, but not on the Irish vote, German vote and the like. That’s because while people may be aware of and proud of Irish or German ancestry, and possibly remember their grandmother making some ethnic foods and the like, they don’t really see themselves as Irish or German and their votes are not much influenced by specific Irish or German concerns. This is not thought to be the case for blacks and Hispanics. What I’m suggesting is that - all else being equal - as an immigrant group remains longer in this country, they get assimilated in the sense that their sense of being part of their ancestral ethnic group weakens and their identification with America tends to increase. So that as time goes by, the Hispanic community will be - on average - less influenced by Hispanic-specific issues like immigration and suspicions of xenophobia, and more by general all-purpose concerns like jobs and taxes and the like. This would tend to work in favor of the Republicans, and offset the impact of growing immigrant populations. > [@pool](#): > > Well I believe at least one poll I read said that Hispanics of Cuban descent were more likely to vote Trump than all the other Hispanics, there are a lot of Cubans in Florida which was a key state for Trump to win, I’d also wager they are more successful in general than the majority of Mexican-descent Hispanics in Florida and would be more likely to vote than the Mexican American workers in Florida who often are very poor, work labor-intensive jobs, and often know little to no English. My wife’s family is of Cuban descent, her father’s family actually fled in 1959 when Castro took over, they are largely successful and they are Trump supporters. They really were rooting for Rubio in the beginning but after Trump got the nomination they supported him, they have conservative values, and are Catholic. It’s more than that. Cubans have historically been aligned with the Republican party because they are fiercely anti-communist. This too is lessening in the younger generation. ---
**Author:** ![aldiboronti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc348/32.png) [@aldiboronti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aldiboronti)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2016, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-trump-get-so-many-hispanic-voters/771133/58 "2016-11-10T14:58:58Z")
He got so many because Latinos are not all the same. They are of several races, several ideologies and several beliefs. The Democrats like nothing better than pigeon-holing people into groups and expecting them to behave as hive-minds. With Latinos especially this is way off course. West Coast Latinos for instance are very different from Latinos from Florida, many of whom are very conservative. The Democrats ignore this at their peril. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-trump-get-so-many-hispanic-voters/771133.md?page=2)