The experts will also suggest that Trump’s Latino support is tied to faith, and the fact that so many Latinos are Catholics who oppose abortion and are wary of pro-choice Democrats like Biden.
But polls show that Latinos are nearly evenly split on the question of whether abortion should be legal in all or most cases; a slim minority (45%) are pro-choice. Younger Latinos are more likely to support a woman’s right to choose than older ones. More important, even among Latino Catholics, abortion isn’t much of a motivator for getting people to the polls. In surveys, Latinos list their top issues as being jobs, the economy and health care.
Finally, there will be onlookers who — as non-Latinos — feel free to take the liberty of dabbling in an outdated stereotype. It was the macho factor, they’ll say, insisting that Trump did well with Latino men in particular because people with roots in Latin America often love a strongman — and Trump, for all his failings, projects strength. Even before the election, we saw stories about the Latino vote that made this point.
This is more nonsense. The strongest, most vibrant and most influential voting bloc within the Latino community aren’t men at all. They’re women. It’s Latinas who help shape the Latino vote.
