US election poll: Two-thirds of Latino voters think Covid-19 is biggest threat to US. That’s bad news for Trump

A majority of Hispanics believe that the coronavirus pandemic is the most important issue facing the world today, according to new polling data of the US shared exclusively with The Independent.

A majority of Hispanics (63 per cent ) believe that Covid-19 is the biggest challenge to address, followed by climate change (26 per cent). Hispanics were more concerned about the pandemic than any other racial group, according to  a sweeping poll conducted last month by Hope not Hate, an anti-extremism nonprofit. 

Some 56 per cent of white people thought Covid-19 was the greatest issue facing the world, 53 per cent of Black people and 46 per cent of people who identified as other.

Of the total 5,500 people surveyed, 61 per cent of US adults said that they did not believe that the president had handled the pandemic well.

This number jumped among the Hispanics surveyed to 73 per cent who believe Mr Trump has mismanaged the crisis.

Covid-19 has disproportionately impacted racial and ethnic minorities, making people from those groups more at risk of getting sick or dying from the virus due to “long-standing systemic health and social inequities”, as the CDC notes.

New CDC data released earlier in October found that Black and Hispanic Americans were disproportionately more likely to die from the coronavirus during the past spring and summer months.

Of more than 114,000 people in the US who died from the virus from May-August, some 24 per cent were Hispanic or Latino. According to census.gov, the Hispanic-Latino population in the US is 18.5 per cent.

The CDC study also found that despite being around 13 per cent of the population, Black people made up 19 per cent of the death toll from Covid-19.

Some 226,220 people have died from the coronavirus in the US. 

Mr Trump, who was hospitalised with Covid-19 earlier this month, has repeatedly stated that the US is “rounding the corner” on the pandemic and continues to hold large rallies, with no social distancing and few masks, in the run-up to the election. 

Democratic nominee Joe Biden has warned that a “dark winter” is ahead and urged people to wear masks, among other precautions.

The 2020 election is the first time in history that Hispanics will make up the biggest racial or ethnic minority voting bloc, with around 32 million people able to cast ballots. 

Capturing the Hispanic vote is particularly important as polling earlier this month revealed that the group could swing the outcome in the battleground states of Arizona, Florida, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Texas.

Polling by the Pew Research Center this month found that two-thirds of Hispanic registered voters were confident in Mr Biden to tackle major issues facing the US, including the coronavirus outbreak, the economy and healing divisions within the country.  (Pew found earlier in the summer that the economy, health care and Covid-19 were among the most important issues for Hispanic voters.)

Hispanic voters have significantly less confidence in Mr Trump to tackle these issues, the Pew polling found.  Less than 50 per cent say they are confident that he can handle the same issues.

Over the last few weeks, Hope not Hate has polled a total of 15,500 US adults with 80 questions on a range of political, cultural and attitudinal issues.

The information was analysed by data companies Hanbury Strategy and FocalData, and is set to be published in a Hope not Hate study, “Fear & Hope USA”, later this week.