Poll: Clinton has big lead among Hispanics

Hillary Clinton has a sizable advantage over all other Democratic and Republican candidates among registered Hispanic voters, according to a new bipartisan Univision poll out Thursday.

Among registered Democratic Hispanic voters, 73 percent said they would vote for Clinton. No other challenger breaks double digits.


In a head-to-head general election matchup with former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, Clinton picked up 64 percent, compared with just 27 percent for Bush, according to the survey, conducted by Democratic consultants Bendixen & Amandi and Republican consultants The Tarrance Group.

Among Hispanic Republican voters surveyed, Bush leads the GOP field with 38 percent, followed by Florida Sen. Marco Rubio with 22 percent and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz with 12 percent.

In the swing states of North Carolina, Colorado and Nevada, Clinton has a significant double-digit lead over Bush (53 percent to 39 percent in North Carolina, 67 percent to 21 percent in Colorado and 67 percent to 25 percent in Nevada). But in the all-important state of Florida, the former secretary of state’s lead is narrower, at just 49 percent to 44 percent.

On Donald Trump, a solid majority of Hispanic voters — 79 percent — said they found the billionaire businessman’s comments on immigration offensive, and 71 percent hold an unfavorable opinion of him.

Trump has repeatedly claimed that “Hispanics love me” and that he “will win the Hispanic vote.” But in a head-to-head matchup with Clinton in this poll, he trails 70 percent to 16 percent.

But just 14 percent said that Trump’s comments represent the views of the GOP writ large, with 61 percent saying that they represent only his own. A majority of 74 percent also supports the decisions by NBCUniversal, Macy’s, Univision and others to sever business ties with Trump.

Among the poll’s other findings, a majority of Hispanic voters (54 percent) said that whether a candidate speaks fluent Spanish has no impact on their vote. But nearly 4 in 10 (39 percent) said they would be more likely to vote for a candidate if he or she spoke Spanish fluently.

Bush and Rubio are bilingual, and both have spoken Spanish while campaigning. Clinton, though not fluent, has sprinkled in a few lines on occasion.

Hispanic voters also do not appear to consider the reestablished diplomatic ties with Cuba a major sticking point to whether they would support a candidate, with 46 percent saying that a candidate’s support of President Barack Obama’s position would not have an impact on their decision. And among Cuban-Americans, 40 percent said they would be willing to support a candidate favoring the normalization of relations between the U.S. and Cuba, and only 26 percent said they would be less likely to vote for a candidate in favor of normalization.

The poll surveyed 1,400 Hispanic voters from June 12-25, carrying an overall margin of error of plus or minus 2.6 percentage points.