Latino Decisions and NCLR released a new poll today of Florida Latino voters and their electoral sentiments this year on a host of issues, including immigration reform. Florida Latinos have historically been more conservative, and included large populations of Cuban and Puerto Ricans, for whom the issue of immigration reform tends to be less salient. But the state’s Latino population is becoming younger and more diverse, and immigration reform is becoming more important to them than ever.
Check out this slide from the Latino Decisions polling deck finding that immigration reform is a top issue for Florida Latino voters:
That’s bad news for the likes of Marco Rubio, once hailed as the GOP’s great electoral savior. Rubio has spent the last year running away from his own immigration reform bill, a fact that won’t go over too well with Florida Latino voters when he starts reaching out to them again in this must-win-for Republicans state. Rubio is currently stumping for Scott Brown, the New Hampshire candidate who has apparently made his entire campaign against incumbent Jeanne Shaheen into a fear-omercial about the southern border (despite the fact that New Hampshire is more than 2,000 miles away). If Scott Brown is elected, he is likely to not be a vote for immigration reform, something that Florida Latino voters can hold against Rubio.
Here’s more stuff on immigration reform. According to the Latino Decisions toplines, more Florida Latino voters blame House Republicans for the death of immigration reform legislation than they blame President Obama, or both:
Obama and the Democrats in fact receive fairly favorable ratings from Florida Latino voters:
Republicans, not so much:
Forty percent of Florida Latino voters believe that Democrats are doing a good job of reaching out to Latinos. That means Democrats in the state still have a lot of work to do, since 49% of Florida Latinos believe that Democrats take them for granted/don’t care/or are hostile:
However, just 23% of Florida Latinos believe that Republicans are doing a good job reaching out to them:
And as always, the immigration reform issue always boils down to what’s personal — 42% of Florida Latinos personally know someone undocumented.
Read the full Latino Decisions slidedeck here or the toplines here.
