Many Latino Americans believe the Democratic and Republican parties take them for granted

Washington, DC, December 21, 2021 -- A new Axios-Ipsos Latino Poll in partnership with Telemundo finds that Latino Americans believe the Democratic Party cares about them more than the Republican Party. However, both parties are viewed similarly on key issues like the economy and crime.

The poll also finds support for more lenient immigration policy though differences exist based on country of origin and how long they or their family has lived in the U.S.

These findings and an annotated questionnaire in Spanish are available for download as a PDF at the bottom of the post.

Detailed Findings

1. Latino Americans’ perceptions of the two parties differ on how much they care for or represent Latino Americans but are similar on some key issues.
   • More Latino Americans believe the Democratic Party represents people like them (46% vs. 23%) and cares about Latino Americans (45% vs. 20%) than the Republican Party.
   • Cuban Americans, however, are far more likely to say the Republican Party represents people like them (36%) than those from any other country of origin.*
   • A majority (51%) say the Republican Party takes Latino Americans for granted and four in ten (40%) say the Democratic Party takes Latino Americans for granted.
   • Both parties are perceived similarly on being good for the economy (40% Democratic Party, 38% Republican) and crime and public safety (39% Democratic Party, 39% Republican).
   • The Democratic Party is seen as doing better on handling the COVID-19 pandemic (55%) than the Republican Party (28%).
2. The majority of Latino Americans support more lenient U.S. immigration policy.
   • Just over two-thirds support providing a path to U.S. citizenship for all people currently in the U.S. illegally (68%), while six in ten (60%) support allowing refugees fleeing crime and violence in Latin America to claim asylum in the U.S.
   • Seven in ten oppose sending all undocumented immigrants back to their country of origin (70%) or building a wall or fence along the entire U.S.-Mexico border (68%)
   • Opposition to building a wall along the entire U.S.-Mexico border is highest among those from Mexico (73%) and other Central American countries (72%). Meanwhile a majority of Cuban Americans (54%) and a plurality of Puerto Ricans (45%) support building a wall or fence along the entire U.S.-Mexico border.*
   • In general, support for more lenient immigration policy is slightly, but not significantly, higher among first generation immigrants.
3. Latino Americans are divided on their beliefs on the legality of abortion. They support President Biden’s two largest policy agendas (infrastructure and Build Back Better) by a margin of two to one, but many aren’t familiar with either.
   • The top 3 topics that Latino Americans find the most worrying are: COVID-19/coronavirus (37%), crime or gun violence (30%), and climate change (25%).
   • A plurality (40%) agree abortion should be legal, while over one in three (36%) disagree; one-fifth (22%) are undecided, saying they neither agree nor disagree.
   • Two in five (44%) Latino Americans support the infrastructure spending program recently passed into law and the “Build Back Better” social spending program (39%) compared to the one in five that oppose each (20% and 18%, respectively).
   • Meanwhile, many are not familiar with either: 34 percent for the infrastructure spending program and 43 percent for the “Build Back Better” social spending program.

*Note, differences by country of origin for people from Cuban or Central American (besides Mexican) descent may be due to low base sizes (n=67 and n=59, respectively).

This Axios/Ipsos Latino Poll, in partnership with Telemundo, was conducted Dec. 2-14, 2021, by Ipsos' KnowledgePanel®. This poll is based on a nationally representative probability sample of 1,064 Hispanic/Latino adults age 18 or older. The margin of sampling error is ±3.8 percentage points at the 95% confidence level, for results based on the entire sample.

About the Study

The Axios-Ipsos Latino poll in partnership with Telemundo was conducted December 2^nd – December 14^th, 2021 by Ipsos using our KnowledgePanel®. This poll is based on a nationally representative probability sample of 1,064 Latino/Hispanic adults age 18 or older in the United States.

The survey was conducted using KnowledgePanel, the largest and most well-established online probability-based panel that is representative of the adult US population. Our recruitment process employs an addressed-based sampling methodology using the latest Delivery Sequence File of the USPS – a database with full coverage of all delivery points in the US. Households invited to join the panel are randomly selected from all available households in the U.S. Persons in the sampled households are invited to join and participate in the panel. Those selected who do not already have internet access are provided a tablet and internet connection at no cost to the panel member. Those who join the panel and who are selected to participate in a survey are sent a unique password-protected log-in used to complete surveys online. As a result of our recruitment and sampling methodologies, samples from KnowledgePanel cover all households regardless of their phone or internet status and findings can be reported with a margin of sampling error and projected to the general population.

The study was conducted in both English and Spanish. The data were weighted to adjust for gender by age, education, language proficiency, Latino/Hispanic origin, household income, Census region, metropolitan status, and 2020 vote choice. Demographic benchmarks, among Latino/Hispanic adults age 18+, came from the 2021 Current Population Survey (CPS) with language proficiency from the 2019 American Community Survey (ACS). Benchmarks for 2020 Vote choice among the US Latino/Hispanic population came from Census pot-election survey and Pew 2021 validate voter survey. The weighting variables and categories were as follows:

• Gender (Male, Female) by Age (18–29, 30–44, 45–59, and 60+)
• Education (Less than High School grad, High School grad, Some College/Tech/Associate’s degree, Bachelor’s degree or higher)
• Language Proficiency (English proficient, Bilingual, Spanish proficient)
• Latino/Hispanic origin (Mexican, Puerto Rican, Cuban, Central American, Other)
• Household Income (Under $50,000, $50,000-$99,999, $100,000+)
• Census Region (Northeast, Midwest, South, West)
• Metropolitan status (Metro, non-Metro)
• 2020 Vote choice (Trump, Biden, Other/Did not vote)

The margin of sampling error is plus or minus 3.8 percentage points at the 95% confidence level, for results based on the entire sample of Latino/Hispanic adults. The margin of sampling error takes into account the design effect, which was 1.57. The margin of sampling error is higher and varies for results based on sub-samples. In our reporting of the findings, percentage points are rounded off to the nearest whole number. As a result, percentages in a given table column may total slightly higher or lower than 100%. In questions that permit multiple responses, columns may total substantially more than 100%, depending on the number of different responses offered by each respondent.

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