Exploring why more Latinos voted for Trump and what it means for future elections

While a majority of Black and Latino voters turned out for Vice President Kamala Harris this election, President-elect Donald Trump made significant inroads with both groups. Voter surveys from the Associated Press show Trump won 43 percent of the overall Latino vote, an eight-point increase from 2020. Geoff Bennett discussed more with Pastor Samuel Rodriguez.
Geoff Bennett:
While a majority of Black and Latino voters turned out for Vice President Kamala Harris in this election, president-elect Donald Trump made significant inroads with both groups, especially Latinos, to help him secure the White House.
Voter surveys from the Associated Press show that the president-elect won 43 percent of the overall Latino vote. That’s an eight-point increase from 2020. And, this year, 48 percent of Latino men voted for Mr. Trump.
For a closer look, I spoke yesterday with Pastor Samuel Rodriguez. He’s president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference and a former adviser to presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama.
Pastor Rodriguez, welcome back to the “News Hour.”
Rev. Samuel Rodriguez, National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference:
Thank you for having me.
Geoff Bennett:
Well before the election, you predicted that Latinos and Latino evangelicals in particular would vote for Donald Trump. Why? I mean, understanding that no group is a monolith, his support among Hispanic voters is up eight points from 2020. What accounts for it?
Rev. Samuel Rodriguez:
I really do believe that what we experienced at this election was the official breaking up of the Latino community with the Democratic Party.
It doesn’t have to be a permanent breakup, by the way. It would require a bit of humility on behalf of the Democratic operatives. The primary reason I do believe has to do with faith. Latinos are becoming more and more evangelical every single year.
That evangelical ethos will prompt them to embrace what you would deem as conservative values, what we deem as biblically substantiated truths. So Latinos are becoming more conservative because of their faith. But, number two, I do believe Latinos are becoming more conservative or at least voting more Republican because the Democratic Party abandoned the party of Barack Obama in 2008.
It’s no longer that. Dorothy, we’re not in Kansas anymore. It’s no longer even a liberal classic party center-left. It’s to the extreme left on a plethora of issues.
(Crosstalk)
Geoff Bennett:
Issues like what? I mean, is it specific policies or is it perceptions of the party?
Rev. Samuel Rodriguez:
No, it’s specific policies.
You can’t let 10 to 15 million illegal entries into the country. No other nation has ever done that. And you would assume Latinos are in favor of open borders. Guess what? We’re not. And we proved it that we’re not. We want people to come here legally.
By the way, we believe immigrants are a super blessing because we’re immigrants. So we love immigration, but we want them to come here legally. That’s one area. The second area I do believe, has to do with our children. Basically, the message Latinos conveyed to the Democratic Party was, get your hands off our children.
I will explain to you what that means. It’s parental rights in school. It’s the mandated COVID vaccines in 2020, 2021, vaccination. But even beyond that, even on the issue of gender and so forth, a very controversial issue, with great empathy for those that suffer from gender dysphoria, of course, as Latinos, we are faith and familia.
We perceive an intrusion. There’s government intrusion into both our faith and our family apparatus. Hence, get your hands off our children, and you saw the election results accordingly.
Geoff Bennett:
There are people of faith who would wonder how you are able to look beyond Donald Trump’s moral character, the felony convictions, the divisive rhetoric and cast your vote in support.
Rev. Samuel Rodriguez:
It’s a legitimate question and something we have to discuss.
And I put that right next to abortion demand without any restrictions, even in the late term, late-term abortion here versus character, tweets, rhetoric, personality and bravado. So I have to measure this. I have to measure government coming and intruding in how I raise my children versus character, rhetoric, tweets and bravado.
So we measured it. Latinos measured it and went like — and many Latinos went, like, man, we don’t like the guy. Many Latinos say, we don’t like the guy, but his policies were amazing and his policies lined up with what I believe. And the Democratic Party sounds good, but the policies are counterintuitive to who I am as a Latino and as a Christian.
Now, there may be, there may be an opportunity here. Let me explain. The policy of mass deportations, that policy is — it is controversial. I don’t deny it. And what our understanding is mass deportations will take place regarding targeting primarily criminals, those that are involved in the terrorist activities.
(Crosstalk)
Geoff Bennett:
Potentially, but the scale of what the Trump campaign has promised would likely extend beyond those undocumented immigrants who have committed violent crimes.
So the question is, what does that mean for Latinos who live in mixed-status families or who are here legally, but are profiled and caught up in what could be this mass deportation effort?
Rev. Samuel Rodriguez:
Now, I could tell you right here to your audience, I would be the first one vociferously protesting if the administration comes after families that have been here 20, 25, 30 years, 15 years, God-fearing, hardworking, not living off government subsidies, whose children were born here.
I will be the first one protesting, because that’s not my understanding. And I can’t disclose my conversations with the president-elect’s team, but I can tell you that there have been multiple assurances from very powerful individuals to yours truly directly, regarding the targeted audiences. And we’re talking about those involved in nefarious activities.
So my understanding is that good, God-fearing, hardworking families that have been here for years, for years and are not living off government subsidies and whose children were born here, these families will not be targeted. I hope and pray that they adhere to — adhere to what they conveyed with yours truly regarding the mass deportation efforts.
Geoff Bennett:
Well, we will see.
I want to ask you this, because you were raised in the Rust Belt to immigrant parents from Puerto Rico. And in the lead-up to Election Day, the conventional wisdom was that Donald Trump was going to pay a price after that insult comic said that Puerto Rico was an island of floating garbage.
What did the pundits miss?
Rev. Samuel Rodriguez:
But you would expect the Puerto Rico vote to go like absolute — hey, in Northampton County, Pennsylvania, where I’m from, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, Puerto Ricans voted for Trump.
For Trump in Kissimmee, Florida, which is Puerto Rico North, we call it, San Juan North, Puerto Ricans voted for Trump. The pundits missed it because they thought that an emotional moment, which was — which was valid, by the way, and justified — the pushback was justified, but that moment would, no pun intended, trump the policies. It did not.
Again, the Democratic Party went too hard left. They need to come back to the values, to the middle. We’re not asking them to go to the right. Go to the middle, meet the Latino community halfway. We are temporarily breaking up. It could be a permanent break up based on the next steps taken by the Democratic operatives.
Geoff Bennett:
Pastor Samuel Rodriguez, thanks for your insights.
Rev. Samuel Rodriguez:
Thank you for having me.