Posted on November 10, 2016

Record Latino Vote Turnout Not Enough to Give Hillary a Win

Laura Bonilla Cal and Leila Macor, AFP, November 10, 2016

Latino voters were supposed to be Hillary Clinton’s secret weapon to win the White House–but even high turnout by voters in the fastest-growing US minority wasn’t enough for her to seal the deal.

What happened? For starters, fewer Latinos and African-Americans–groups that traditionally vote for Democrats–voted for Clinton than for Barack Obama in 2012.

And the increase of the Latino vote was mitigated by a higher turnout among white non-Hispanics and less educated people that supported Republican Donald Trump across the country.

The Latino vote “was no doubt a record, but we have to wait until April or May to have the definitive figures,” said Mark Hugo Lopez, director of Hispanic Research at the Pew Research Center (PRC).

More than 27 million Latinos were registered to vote, but Lopez estimates that less than half–some 13 million–actually cast ballots.

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A good 65 percent of self-declared Latino voters said that they supported Clinton, a former first lady, senator and secretary of state, while 29 percent supported Trump, a real estate businessman and reality TV star with zero political experience.

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In the 2012 election, Obama won 72 percent of Latino voters, against rival Mitt Romney who won 27 percent.

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