Poll: Clinton leads Trump by 50 points among Latinos

Donald Trump’s inability to connect with the Hispanic community and anti-illegal immigration rhetoric have put the Manhattan billionaire in a massive hole with Latino voters with just weeks to go until Election Day.

An NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll completed last week shows Hillary Clinton with a 50-point lead over Trump among Hispanic likely voters, 67 percent to 17 percent, in a four-way race that also includes Libertarian Gary Johnson and the Green Party’s Jill Stein. In a head-to-head matchup with Johnson and Stein removed, Clinton leads Trump 70 percent to 17 percent among Latinos likely to vote.


Trump has struggled to connect with Hispanic voters from Day One of his presidential campaign, when he suggested in his kickoff speech that undocumented immigrants from Mexico were rapists and drug dealers. Trump later suggested that a federal judge could not fairly hear a case against him because of his Hispanic heritage, a remark that House Speaker Paul Ryan referred to as the “textbook definition of a racist comment.”

More recently, Trump defended his past remarks about former Miss Universe Alicia Machado, who the Republican nominee mocked as “Miss Piggy” because of her supposed weight gain and “Miss Housekeeping” because of her Hispanic heritage.

As Election Day draws closer, Latino respondents to the NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll said they are growing more interested in the White House race. Sixty-nine percent of Hispanic respondents said they are very interested in the presidential election, a 9 percent increase from a poll taken last month. Just 13 percent of Latinos polled said they view Trump favorably, compared with 80 percent who view him unfavorably.

The NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll was conducted from Oct. 10-13, contacting 300 Latino registered voters with a margin of error of plus or minus 5.66 percent. Of that group, 255 were determined to be likely voters, with a margin of error of plus or minus 6.14 percent.