Politics

Dems look to capitalize on Trump’s weakening with Latinos

Published

7 months ago

November 19, 2025

Democrats believe they have an opening to reclaim Latino voters that fled the party last year — but a prominent Latino-focused group argued the party needs to present a message that’s more than just anti-Donald Trump.

Trump’s approval among Latino voters has tapped new lows, continuing a months-long plunge in support among the voting bloc Republicans are relying on to sustain their strongholds in the midterms, according to polling sponsored by Latino voter group Somos Votantes and its affiliated PAC that was shared first with Blue Light News.

Trump’s personal favorability is underwater by 26 points among Latino voters, according to a survey conducted by GSG. The drop continues a sustained slump among the demographic that has only worsened since the beginning of the year, and sank another 6 points since September.

But the new polling offers an equally grim outlook on Trump’s handling of the economy — an issue the administration has touted as one of their top achievements and a ballot issue both sides of the aisle have identified as a main decider in top races. Trump is underwater by 30 points on the issue, dipping from 38 percent approval in May to 34 percent in November.

“The reality is that Donald Trump promised to slash prices on day one,” said Melissa Morales, Somos’ president. “That was something that he repeated over and over and that he certainly hasn’t delivered on. What we need to see as we move into next year is that Latino voters are looking for a positive economic vision to believe in. The side that can deliver that in a real way will win over Latino voters.”

Latino voters who swung toward Trump in 2024 rebounded back toward Democrats in this cycle’s off-year races, with the Democratic candidates in both New Jersey and Virginia winning heavily Latino areas. Democrats have heralded these wins as a sign that their messaging on affordability offers the party a chance to harness Latino voters back to the party base, a takeaway Morales said the survey reaffirms.

“The Democratic message can’t just be anti-Trump,” she said. “It has to be providing Latino voters with a positive economic vision for the future and giving them something to believe in.”

“That’s the sort of vision that Latino voters are looking for right now, and that if Democrats want to win Latino voters back over, that they will have to provide,” she added.

Republicans have largely dismissed the party’s recent struggles with Latinos, saying the GOP will bounce back by the midterms. They point to their inroads with Latino voters in recent cycles, noting Trump’s historic gains in 2024 as well as a string of wins in some majority-Latino congressional districts.

“Democrats have ignored Hispanic communities over the past nine years while millions of working families rejected their radical, socialist agenda,” Christian Martinez, the National Republican Congressional Committee’s national Hispanic press secretary, told POLITICO last week. “Republicans will continue to earn the support of Hispanic voters because we are working to deliver opportunity, security, and a better life.”

A majority of Latino voters in the Somos poll overwhelmingly reported extreme concern with the rising cost of living at 64 percent. The polling suggested that Democrats could capitalize on this concern, with Latinos largely holding Republicans responsible for the state of the economy: 45 percent say they blame the GOP for the rising cost of living, compared to 24 percent who blamed Democrats.

“Latino voters are genuinely worried about making sure that they make ends meet,” said pollster Rosa Mendoza. “And I think Republicans having that be one of their core messages as they were heading into the election in 2024, and yet being very much on the back burner — it’s not helping them.”

Global Strategy Group conducted the national poll of 800 Latino registered voters from Nov. 4 to 12. It has a margin of error of plus-or-minus 3.5 percentage points.

A version of this article first appeared in Blue Light News Pro’s Morning Score. Want to receive the newsletter every weekday? Subscribe to Blue Light News Pro. You’ll also receive daily policy news and other intelligence you need to act on the day’s biggest stories.

Politics

Vance contradicts Trump about bipartisan cooperation on housing bill

Published

24 minutes ago

July 1, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

As a rule, JD Vance seems to go out of his way to say whatever Donald Trump wants him to say, but from time to time, contradictions emerge between the president and the vice president.

Take the recently passed housing bill, for example, which arrived at the White House earlier this week.

As part of an interview Tuesday night with Fox News’ Laura Ingraham, the Ohio Republican said, “Frankly, Laura, I would love it if Democrats were willing — you know, not that they will agree with Republicans all the time — but if they were willing to work with us on lowering housing prices, on lowering gas prices, on actually making the lives of American citizens better. You know, we could have some real bipartisan compromise. That’s not what they’re talking about.”

I realize the vice president must be very busy, but it really isn’t that difficult to keep up with the basics of current events. In this case, when Vance said Democrats are unwilling to work with Republicans on priorities such as “lowering housing prices,” he turned reality on its head. It was literally last week when Democrats offered unanimous support for a bipartisan bill to address housing prices — legislation that members such as Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts helped to write.

Democrats recognized that doing so would offer the GOP some election-season bragging rights, but Democrats did it anyway because they have prioritized governing and “actually making the lives of American citizens better” over partisan considerations.

But Vance didn’t just contradict reality; he also contradicted his boss.

Just one day before the vice president brazenly misled a national television audience, Trump was asked about the pending housing bill. “It’s very bipartisan; that means the Democrats like it,” the president saidwhile acknowledging that he hasn’t yet decided whether to sign it.

In other words, when Vance said policymakers “could have some real bipartisan compromise,” he seemed indifferent to the fact that we’ve already had some real bipartisan compromise — a detail that even Trump was willing to acknowledge a day earlier.

Whether the vice president will suffer for publicly contradicting the president remains to be seen.

Steve Benen is a producer for “The Rachel Maddow Show,” the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He’s also the bestselling author of “Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans’ War on the Recent Past.”

Politics

Bosnia’s starting lineup is also a map of its war

Published

29 minutes ago

July 1, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

BELGRADE, Serbia — The nearly four-year Bosnian war in the 1990s set off a massive wave of displacement, with a third of Bosnia and Herzegovina’s pre-war population permanently leaving the country as refugees.

Team captain Edin Džeko, a 40-year-old striker who left his native Sarajevo soon after the war, has recalled playing soccer in the lulls between the daily barrage of sniper fire that defined the siege of the Bosnian capital and says he could never have imagined becoming a world-class player after watching the football pitches in his neighborhood reduced to “fields of scorched earth.”

Bosnia’s squad reflects that postwar diaspora. Left back Sead Kolašinac was born in Karlsruhe, Germany, in 1993 to a family that left after Bosnia descended into war. Right back Amar Dedić was born in Austria after his parents left northern Bosnia during the war, and midfielder Benjamin Tahirović in Sweden to refugees from besieged Sarajevo.

And then there is the so-called Milwaukee Messi: young forward Esmir Bajraktarević, who was born in a Wisconsin to parents born in the eastern town that gave its name to the Srebrenica genocide.

Politics

Belgium’s Congolese heartland sees victory in defeat

Published

59 minutes ago

July 1, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

BRUSSELS — The Matongé area of Brussels was filled with drums and flags on Wednesday evening as every bar and barber shop showed the DR Congo vs. England game — the biggest Congolese match since 1974, when it won the African Cup of Nations and competed in the World Cup under the name Zaire.

Belgium’s relationship with DR Congo is rooted in its colonial rule, a legacy that continues to shape political, cultural and diplomatic ties today. Up to 50,000 members of the Congolese diaspora live in Brussels, with the vibrant Matongé as the epicenter.

English fans in Matongé were few and far between — and mainly silent — throughout most of the match as their team trailed for a long period before turning the game around.

Despite Congo’s eventual narrow defeat, supporters were stoked by the team’s performance. “At the end of the day Congo was better than England because they overperformed and England underperformed,” said Darshan Pham, whose family hails from DR Congo. “That’s the beauty of the games, it’s a victory for them anyway because they made it so far.”

Sydney Jadot, who worked for five years in DR Congo where his family is from, also admired the team’s fight: “What can I say? I think Congo fought well — they put all their hearts [into it] and England is more thorough.”