Democrats -- and Republicans -- have a serious problem with Latino voters

There is a large voter demographic that political parties are having a difficult time capturing. According to The Daily Beast's Ruben Navarrette Jr., Democrats are losing a substantial number of Latino voters while Republicans are facing difficulty in piquing the interest of those same voters.

The publication points to a recent Axios-Ipsos poll that highlights the concerns of Latino voters and why many of them do not align with either political party.

A total of "46 percent of Latinos went with Democrats while only 23 percent picked Republicans when asked which party better represented their concerns. The same poll showed that 40 percent of Latinos felt the Democratic Party took their support for granted, and 51 percent said the same thing about the Republican Party."

While Latinos are traditionally Democratic voters, the latest findings suggest that Latinos do not believe their concerns are being heard. Navarrette wrote:

"The Democrats’ strategy for how to lose the Latino vote goes as follows: Ignore the bread-and-butter issues that Latinos care about like education, jobs, and the economy and focus instead on issues they don’t much care about like critical race theory, climate change, and punishing Trump for the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. Take Latino votes for granted, without going into the community and asking for their support. Go full-Trump with Biden’s immigration policy to calm 'anxious' suburban white voters."

Cliff Young, Ipsos president of U.S. Public Affairs, also weighed in on the issue Latinos have with Republican lawmakers.

"They could very easily be swing voters from election to election,” Cliff Young, Ipsos president of U.S. Public Affairs, said of the poll his company conducted with Axios. “But the issues of race and immigration and the related framing around it has really pushed them away from Republicans.”

However, The Daily Beast points out the strategies that could work in Republicans' favor. Navarrette wrote:

• "First, they’re the pro-business party, and a message of lower taxes and less regulation plays well with a population filled with entrepreneurs and small business owners.
• "Second, while the Republican hard line on social issues—including its pro-life zealotry on abortion—might scare off white women in the suburbs, they don’t have that effect on a largely Catholic community.
• "And third, Republicans don’t need Latinos to formally change their party registration, only for Latinos to vote now and then for the occasional Republican candidate who is not a fire-breathing crazy person."

Lastly, there is one other issue that could be problematic for Democrats. Republicans could use the party's principles against them. With the 2022 midterm elections right around the corner, it is imperative for Democrats to remain vigilant in maintaining the interest of voters.