Nearly 80 percent of Latinos have a negative view of Donald Trump, and fewer than one in five say that they plan to support him in November’s election, a new NBC News/Wall Street Journal/Telemundo poll shows.
But while Hillary Clinton leads Trump by a huge margin among Latinos, her support has dipped slightly since earlier this summer.
The poll found that 71 percent of likely Latino voters said they would back the Democratic nominee in a head-to-head matchup, while just 18 percent supported Trump.
Among all registered Latino voters, the share was 69 percent for Clinton, 18 percent for Trump. In July, 76 percent of registered Latino voters said they would select Clinton in a head-to-head matchup, while 14 percent supported Trump.
When third-party candidates were included in a hypothetical ballot matchup, 65 percent of Latino likely voters said they would back Clinton, 17 percent would vote for Trump, 9 percent for Gary Johnson and 2 percent for Jill Stein.
The poll, which surveyed 300 Latino voters, also found that 78 percent viewed Trump negatively, with 68 percent saying their view was “very negative.”
Just 15 percent gave the GOP nominee positive marks.
That was compared to 57 percent of Latino voters who gave Clinton a positive review, while 30 percent viewed her negatively.
Trump has indicated that he hopes to woo minority voters. Earlier this summer, he met with Hispanic leaders and appeared to be weighing a change to his deportation position, suggesting at one point that he could be open to a “softening” of his pledge to remove all undocumented immigrants living in the United States.
But the new numbers show that any potential overtures from Trump have had little effect on Latino voters.
The new data are similar to a July NBC/WSJ/Telemundo poll that found 11 percent of Latinos viewed Trump positively, compared to 82 percent who give him a thumbs down.
And just 16 percent in the newest poll said that the news they have heard about Trump in recent weeks gave them a more favorable impression of him, while 62 percent said recent news has made their view of him less favorable.
Despite her big lead in a fast-growing part of the electorate, there are some warning signs for Clinton, who has faced criticism from some in the Latino community for failing to do more to mobilize its voters.
While 60 percent of voters overall say they are “very interested” in the election, 49 percent of Latino voters say the same. And among younger Latinos, enthusiasm about the election is even lower, with just 38 percent of Latinos aged 18-39 saying they are “very interested” in the election.
Latinos continue to give President Barack Obama high marks, although his approval rating has slipped slightly since the beginning of the summer.
Seventy percent now say they approve of the job he’s doing as president; 24 percent disapprove. That’s compared to 75 percent approving and 19 percent disapproving in July.
The poll of 300 registered Latinos was conducted in English and in Spanish from September 15-20. The margin of error for registered voters is +/- 5.66 percent. The margin of error for likely voters is +/- 6.00 percent.
