Latino Voters Favor Raising Minimum Wage, Government Involvement in Health Care, Stricter Gun Laws

Most Latino registered voters say they want government to be more involved in solving the nation’s problems, a view that is reflected in their broad support for raising the minimum wage, government involvement in health care and stricter gun laws. {snip}

A record 32 million Latinos are projected to be eligible to vote in November’s general election, exceeding the number of black eligible voters for the first time. About 62% of Latino registered voters identify with or lean toward the Democratic Party, while 34% affiliate with or lean to the Republican Party.

Most Hispanic voters (71%) say the government should do more to solve problems, while 27% say government is doing too many things better left to businesses and individuals.

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Among the U.S. public, about half of registered voters (52%) said in a September 2019 survey that the government should do more to solve problems. {snip}

On the minimum wage, a large majority of Hispanic voters (79%) say they favor raising it to $15 an hour, including more than half (56%) who say they strongly favor this change. {snip}

By comparison, 65% of U.S. registered voters said in a May 2019 survey that they favored raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour, including 90% of Democratic voters and 36% of Republican voters.

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Hispanic voters generally believe the U.S. government should play a role in providing health care to Americans. About seven-in-ten (71%) say it is the federal government’s responsibility to make sure all Americans have health care coverage, including 38% who favor a national health insurance system and 32% who prefer a mix of private and government health care coverage. Around a quarter (28%) say it is not the government’s responsibility to make sure all Americans have health care coverage, though most in this group say they prefer to keep Medicare and Medicaid.

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When it comes to the broader U.S. public, 57% of U.S. registered voters said in September that the government is responsible for ensuring health care coverage, including 87% of Democratic voters and 24% of Republican voters.

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Around seven-in-ten Hispanic voters (68%) say gun laws should be stricter than they are today, while 24% say current gun laws are about right. Only 7% say gun laws should be less strict. {snip}

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A 2017 Pew Research Center survey found white Americans are more than twice as likely as Hispanics to report having a gun in their household (49% vs. 21%), while 32% of black adults said the same. {snip}