Politics
Why this Latino Harris voter says he’s ‘happy’ Trump won
By Allison Detzel
President-elect Donald Trump won a second term in the White House thanks, in part, to a spike in support across several demographic groups. That includes a record-breaking jump among Latino voters.
According to NBC News exit polls, Vice President Kamala Harris still secured the support of a majority of Latino voters, at 53%, while Trump took in about 45% of the vote. That’s a 13-point increase from the same demographic in 2020. It’s also a record high for a Republican presidential nominee, beating out George W. Bush’s 44% in 2004. The increase was especially dramatic among Latino men, with 55% going for Trump this year, compared to 36% in 2020, NBC News exit polling showed.
NBC News’ David Noriega went to Nevada — a state Trump lost in 2016 and 2020 but won this time — to find out what’s driving one Latino family’s support for the president-elect.
Mario Alvarez said that for months he had been wrestling with whom to cast his ballot for before ultimately deciding to vote for Harris. But after Tuesday’s results, Alvarez told Noriega that he was not upset Trump won.
“I’m kind of like, more happy than upset,” Mario said. “Because Donald Trump is going to help the country with the economy.”
His son, Mario Jr., voted for Trump, in part because of the Republican’s brashness.
“Initially, I will say I did not agree with him,” said Mario Jr., 29. “Then I started seeing that he was not afraid to speak his mind and I noticed that he was not scared to say what he felt, regardless of what people would say. I think I respect that about him.”
Across the board, the economy was a top issue for Latino voters in this election. The elder Mario’s wife, Mireya, also voted for Trump and expressed concern that the next generation would not have the same opportunities as hers.
“My main concern right now [is] what’s going to happen to our new generation,” Mireya told Noriega. “They’re not even able to move out of their houses anymore because everything is so expensive.”
The couple came to the United States from Mexico and Guatemala in the 1980s, crossing the border illegally as teenagers but later becoming citizens under President Ronald Reagan’s amnesty program.
As NBC News reported, Latino voters — like other voter groups —have shifted right on immigration in recent years, with more backing tougher enforcement against people arriving at the border.
In a September NBC News poll, 35% of Latinos said that immigration hurts the country more than it helps. That’s the highest share of Latino voters to say so in the survey’s 20-year history.
Mireya said she considered herself and her husband different than the migrants crossing the border illegally today.
In a September NBC News poll, 35% of Latinos said that immigration hurts the country more than it helps.
“The people that are coming here are the criminals,” she said. “The ones that did something bad in their country. They’re running away from the law.”
On the campaign trail, Trump promised to carry out mass deportations of millions of undocumented people. On Thursday, he double-downed on that promise, telling NBC News there would be “no price tag” for what he has said would be the largest deportation of immigrants in U.S. history.
Although the Alvarez family has friends and relatives who are currently undocumented, Mireya told Noriega she’s not worried they would be deported under Trump’s plan since “they’re not breaking any laws.”
“My family is Latino and a lot of them are immigrants,” Mario Jr. added. “But at the end of the day, we’re American.”
Allison Detzel
Allison Detzel is an editor/producer for BLN Digital.
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