CNN’s senior data reporter Harry Enten highlighted Wednesday a “tremendous change” that’s taken place in polling on the immigration issue since the 2020 election, with former President Donald Trump now holding a massive lead over President Joe Biden.
“This is one of the trend lines that I think really tells the story that is the difference between this election and the 2020 election,” Enten told CNN host Anderson Cooper. “So, if you ask voters, who do you think would do a better job handling border security and immigration, what do we see? We see that back in 2020, it was basically a dead even split, right? Joe Biden was slightly favored, but not overwhelmingly. And of course, he slightly won the election, not overwhelmingly so.”
According to RCP’s average of surveys, Biden currently has a 32.6 percent approval rating on immigration.
“Look at where we are today. In a Marquette University Law School poll that was put out last month, look at that advantage that … Donald Trump has on immigration and border security,” Enten continued. “It’s near 30 points. This is a tremendous change that’s going on and it’s no wonder that Donald Trump is running on immigration and he’s not just running on it in a Republican primary, he’s running on it in the general election ... voters at this particular point are quite concerned about immigration and they trust Donald Trump on this particular issue.”
When Cooper asked where Biden stands with Latino voters in the Southwest, Enten offered some disappointing news for Democrats.
“If you ask Hispanic voters, who do they trust more on border security and immigration, overwhelmingly, they trust Donald Trump more, by a tremendous margin," Enten told Cooper. "Look at that, 49 percent to 24 percent and that is in line with what we are seeing in the polls in general amongst Hispanics, right?”
Even though Biden won the Hispanic vote overwhelmingly in 2020, the polling has now shifted, Enten said.
“If you look at the polling right now, an average of polling amongst Hispanic voters, who did they choose in the ballot test? It’s barely Biden, Biden by about two points. It would be the smallest margin for any Democratic candidate among Hispanic voters, basically throughout history, since we started polling the gosh darn thing."
CNN: Hispanic voters "OVERWHELMINGLY" trust President Trump on border security and immigration over Biden — "by a tremendous margin" pic.twitter.com/h1eUQPPMhI
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) March 21, 2024
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