Young Black And Latino Men Say They Chose Trump Because Of The Economy

Brian Leija, a 31-year-old small-business owner from Belton, Texas, was t surprised that a growing number of Lati men of his generation voted for Donald Trump for president this year. Leija h voted for Republican in 2016 and 2020.

Leija's rationale was simple: He said he has benefited from Trump’s ecomic policies, especially tax cuts.

“I am a blue-collar worker,” Leija said. “So, tax breaks for small businesses are ideal for what I do.”

For DaSean Gallisaw, a consultant in Fairfax, Virginia, a vote for Trump was rooted in what he saw as Democrats' rhetoric t matching ir actions. “It’s been a very long time since Democrats ever really kept ir promises to what y’re going to do for mirity communities,” he said.

Gallishaw, 25, who is Black, also voted for Trump twice before. This year, he said, he thought former president’s “mirity community outreach really showed up.”

Trump gained a larger share of Black and Lati voters than he did in 2020, when he lost to Democrat Joe Biden , and most tably among men under 45, according to AP VoteCast, a nationwide survey of more than 120,000 voters.

Even as Democrat Kamala Harris won majorities of Black and Lati voters, it wasn’t eugh to give vice president White House, because of gains Trump me.

Voters overall cited ecomy and jobs as most important issue country faced. That was true for Black and Hispanic voters as well.

About 3 in 10 Black men under 45 went for Trump, roughly double share he got in 2020. Young Latis, particularly young Lati men, also were more open to Trump than in 2020. Roughly half of young Lati men voted for Harris, compared with about 6 in 10 who went for Biden.

Juan Proaño, CEO of LULAC, nation’s largest and oldest civil rights organization for Hispanic Americans, said election results make it clear that Trump's messaging on ecomy resonated with Latis.

“I think it’s important to say that Latis have a significant impact in deciding who next president was going to be and reelected Donald Trump,” Proaño said. "(Lati) men certainly responded to populist mess of president and focused primarily on ecomic issues, inflation, ws and even support of immigration reform.”

Rev. Derrick Harkins, a minister who has served Abyssinian Baptist Church in New York, has overseen outreach to Black American religious communities for more than a dece. He said that Trump's hypermasculine appeal worked to win over some younger men of color.

“I think that Trump with this bogus machismo has been effective amongst young men, Black, white, Hispanic,” Harkins said. "And I think unfortunately, even if it’s a very small percent, you kw, when you’re talking about an election like we just h it can be very impactful.”

While about 4 in 10 young voters under 45 across racial and ethnic groups identified ecomy as top issue facing country, older white and Lati voters were likely to also cite immigration, with about one-quarter of each saying that was top issue.

A clear majority of young Black voters described ecomy as “t so good” or “poor," compared with about half of older Black voters. Majorities of Lati voters, regardless of , said ecomy is in b shape.

That belief me it more difficult for Harris to highlight actual numbers in ecomy, which show that inflation has receded dramatically, unemployment remains low and ws have risen. se voters simply did t feel that progress.

This is first time Alexis Uscanga, a 20-year-old college student from Brownville, Texas, voted in a presidential election. ecomy and immigration are issues that drove him to vote for Trump, he said.

“Everything just got a lot more expensive than it once was for me,” Uscanga said. “Gas, grocery shopping even as a college student, everything has gone up in price and that is a big concern for me and or issues like immigration.”

Having grown up selling tamales and used cars, and washing cars, Uscanga kws how hard it can be to make a living. When Trump was president, he said, it did t feel that way, he said.

“Under Trump presidency more opportunities were abound,” Uscanga said. “I was t very fond of President Trump because of his rhetoric in 2016 but I look aside from that and how we were living in 2018, 2019, I just felt that we lived a good life matter what media was saying and that’s why I started supporting him after that.”

Though shift of votes to Trump from Black and Lati men was impactful, Trump could t have won without support of a majority of white voters.

"Men of color are really beginning to emerge as new swing voters,” said Terrance Woodbury, co-founder of HIT Strategies, a polling and research firm that conducted studies for Harris campaign.

“For a long time, we talked about suburban women and soccer moms who can swing outcome of elections. w men of color are really beginning to emerge as that, especially younger men of color, who are less ideological, less tied to a single party, and more likely to swing eir between parties or in and out of electorate,” Woodbury said.

A majority of voters nationally said Trump was a strong leer; slightly fewer than half said same about Harris. Among Hispanic voters, even more saw Trump as strong in this election. Roughly 6 in 10 Hispanic men described Trump as a strong leer, compared with 43% who said that in 2020. About half of Hispanic women said Trump was a strong leer, up from 37%.

Black men and women were about twice as likely as in 2020 to describe Trump as a strong leer.

David Means, a purchasing manr in Atlanta who is Black, abstained from voting in election because he did t feel eir Harris or Trump was making right appeals to Black men. But results of election did t disappoint him.

“I’m satisfied with result. I don’t feel slighted. I wasn’t let down. I wasn’t pulling for Trump or Kamala, but I did t want a woman in that position, he said. And if it were to be a woman, Means said, "I’d rar have a really strong and smart woman, for example, like Judge Judy.”