Why Is Trump Gaining With Black and Hispanic Voters?

In 2016, Donald J.Trump became the Republican nominee and ultimately won the presidency after calling many Mexican immigrants rapists and falsely claiming that Barack Obama was not born in the United States.Eight years later, the polls suggest that he might well return to the White House by faring better among Black and Hispanic voters combined than any Republican presidential nominee since the enactment of the Civil Rights Act in 1964.How is this possible? It’s a question I get often, and the latest New York Times/Siena College polls of Black and Hispanic voters nationwide represent our best effort at answering it.Like our other surveys this cycle, the polls find Mr.

Trump faring unusually well for a Republican among Black and Hispanic voters.Overall, Kamala Harris is ahead, 78 percent to 15 percent, among Black voters, and she’s leading, 56-37, among Hispanic voters.Almost any way we can measure it, Mr.

Trump is running as well or better among Black and Hispanic voters as any Republican in recent memory.In 2020, Joe Biden’s Black support was 92 percent among major-party voters; his Hispanic support was 63 percent, according to Times estimates.The poll offers plenty of insight into Mr.

Trump’s strengths and Ms.Harris’s weaknesses, but it does not offer a simple, definitive answer.

This may be unsatisfying, but it should not be surprising.After all, analysts are still debating whether Mr.

Trump’s strength among white working-class voters is attributable to the economy, racism, ideology, sexism, Hillary Clinton’s liabilities or one of countless other theories.There still isn’t a definitive answer, even with the benefit of the final results and almost a decade of research.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.

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