Biden’s approval rating among Hispanics has plummeted as the historically Democratic bloc’s support for Republicans continues to increase, presenting an electoral problem for Democrats, whose immigration policies have fueled much of this shift.
Only 26% of Hispanic voters approve of Biden’s job performance, compared to 54% who disapprove, according to a Quinnipiac poll released Wednesday.
Perhaps most striking, the poll found a staggering 41% of Hispanic voters “strongly disapprove” of Biden’s handling of the presidency, while just 12% “strongly approve.”
Hispanics represent the country’s second largest voting bloc by ethnicity.
A downward trend in Hispanic support for Biden has been ongoing for months.
Biden comfortably won the Hispanic vote in 2020 with 59%, according to the Pew Research Center. Since then, however, Hispanic support for the president has plummeted, reaching the 30s last year and now the 20s. Even polling finding a higher approval rating for Biden among Hispanics today still shows a 20-plus-point drop over the past year.
Hispanics aren’t just disapproving of Biden, though. They’re also moving away from Democrats in general.
The National Republican Congressional Committee’s Battleground Survey Project, for example, found that Republicans have made substantial gains among Hispanic voters since the 2020 elections, narrowing the gap by almost 20 percentage points.
Other polling has shown Hispanics evenly split between Democrats and Republicans, a seismic shift from what was once a lopsided balance in favor of Democrats.
Even polling finding a less dramatic shift still shows Hispanics are now migrating across party lines to the GOP.
One sign of this shift manifesting in electoral politics was last year’s Virginia gubernatorial race. Glenn Youngkin, the Republican victor, won the Hispanic vote by about a dozen points, once an unthinkable margin.
The White House and the Democrat-led Congressional Hispanic Caucus didn’t respond to requests for comment on why this Hispanic shift toward the GOP is happening and how they plan to address it.