U.S. President Donald Trump in Macungie, Pennsylvania, U.S., June 23, 2026. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein
After Donald Trump's narrow victory in the 2024 presidential election, one of the things that frustrated Democratic insiders the most was his gains with Latino voters. Democratic nominee Kamala Harris outperformed Trump among Latinos, but only by the low single digits — and by a much smaller margin than Joe Biden in 2020. However, Trump is now struggling among Latinos in countless polls, and according to CBS News, their frustrations could be a major problem for Republicans in the 2026 midterms.
CBS News reporters Anne Bryson and Fin Daniel Gómez examine those frustrations in a June article, explaining, "Leading Latino political strategists are examining the races where Latinos could play an outsize role in this year's midterm elections, and believe their votes will be critical in a number of House races…. At Tuesday's Latino Vote Summit in Washington, D.C., Latino political strategists, pollsters and campaign operatives from both sides of the aisle gathered to discuss cost-of-living issues and Latino political power heading into the fall. The backdrop is Latino voters' swing toward President Trump in 2024 — and Democrats' efforts to win them back during a tightly contested race for control of the House and Senate."
Carlos Odio, co-founder of the political data firm Equis Research, told Latino Vote Summit attendees that in the midterms, "the House map especially is very Latino." And he believes that Latinos could play a key role in the outcome of Texas' 2026 U.S. Senate race, which finds far-right Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton up against Democratic nominee James Talarico."
Inflation is a major source of frustrations for Latinos voters, according to Bryson and Gómez.
Asked what Latinos' top issue will be in the midterms, Odio replied, "The economy, and the economy, and the economy."
Bryson and Gómez report, "Latino voters continue to view economic conditions, like inflation, as their top concern — and Mr. Trump's ratings on his handling of the economy are weaker than they were at about the same point in 2018, Odio said. But Democratic Sen. Ruben Gallego of Arizona, who won his competitive Senate race in a battleground state that Mr. Trump won, said Hispanic voters cannot be taken for granted by the Democratic Party."
Gallego warned members of his party, "The Democratic Party still does not understand that there is no national Democratic Party without the Latino vote being part of that coalition, and part of that is that you have to answer to where the Latino voter is — not where you want the Latino voter to be. There has been this want by special, very liberal organizations and very liberal donors and very liberal groups that they want Latinos to be liberal, and the fact is not all of them are."
