President Obama still has a wide lead over his GOP challengers when it comes to the Hispanic community despite the fact that his administration has increased efforts to follow through with deportation policies, and has been met with opposition. This was revealed in a survey conducted by the Pew Hispanic Center.
Mark H. Lopez, associate director of the Pew Hispanic Center, reveals a chink in the Republican candidates’ armor in saying, “Many Latinos are aware that deportations are up, and among them the president’s approval rating is lower. However, even among them, the president wins in head-to-heads against Romney and Perry.”
Both Perry and Romney win less than one-fourths of the vote in individual matchups against Obama. According to the statistics compiled, Obama is ahead of Romney by 68 to 23 percent while he also leads Perry by 69 to 23 percent.
This support for Obama comes despite the deportation of almost 1 million Hispanics over the past four years, who has come under criticism despite his administration’s claims that they are only targeting criminals in the Hispanic community.
Apart from his immigration policy, Obama has also enjoyed an improvement in rating for his job creation policies amongst Hispanics, leaving his Republican competitors far behind.
Not surprisingly, Republican strategists are of the opinion that the Republican Party cannot win next year’s elections not unless they are able to make inroads into the Hispanic support that the President enjoys – yes, even those Hispanics that lean towards the Republican Party.
And what makes the lives of the Republican nominees far more difficult in the race ahead is the fact that almost two-thirds of Hispanics in this poll feel that they identify with the Democratic Party.
