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By Andrew Stanton
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President Donald Trump’s approval rating plunged with Hispanic voters who supported him in 2024, according to a Pew Research Center poll released Friday, a red flag for Republicans ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.
Hispanic and Latino voters emerged as a new swing demographic. Although they have historically supported Democrats, they were more divided in the 2024 presidential race, backing former Vice President Kamala Harris by only 5 percentage points, per CNN exit polling. But recent polling suggests the president’s approval has slipped among Hispanic and Latino voters ahead of this year's midterms, a potential boon for Democrats amid their effort to reclaim control of Congress.
The new poll may be especially concerning for Republicans because their new congressional maps in states like Florida and Texas hinge on a strong performance among Hispanic and Latino voters. The GOP could struggle in seats they hoped to pick up in redistricting if there is a particularly strong reversion among these voters.
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Donald Trump’s Approval Rating Among Hispanic Voters in New Poll
The poll found that only 66 percent of Hispanic voters who cast their ballots for Trump in 2024 approve of his job performance—the lowest point yet in his second term. That’s down from 93 percent who approved of Trump in Pew's February 2025 survey and 75 percent in its January 2026 survey.
Among all Hispanic adults, his approval rating was only 22 percent, according to the survey.
The data come from the center’s American Trends Panel, conducted among 5,103 Americans from April 20-26, 2026.
White House spokesperson Allison Schuster wrote in a statement to Newsweek that Trump was “honored to receive a record level of support from Hispanic Americans” in 2024, adding that he has “spent every day since his inauguration working to make life better for them.”
What’s Driving Down Trump’s Hispanic Approval Rating? Expert Weighs In
Gustavo Flores-Macías, dean of the School of Public Policy at the University of Maryland, told Newsweek that Trump’s focus on economic and social issues in the 2024 election helped his strong showing. Trump's stance on rising inflation and affordability particularly resonated, he said, but that the affordability issue is now a key factor in driving down Trump’s approval rating.
“Affordability remains a major concern among the broader population but especially Hispanics, as inflation often affects disproportionately the most disadvantaged sectors. Tariffs and the war in Iran have contributed toward further price increases, and increasingly Hispanic voters are disenchanted with the government's inability to follow through on its promise,” Flores-Macías said.
Immigration has also become a sticking point. “The administration's approach to immigration, relying heavily on very visible deportation efforts by federal agencies including ICE has also turned off Hispanic voters, many of whom have relatives or friends who are affected by these efforts,” he added.
To win back Hispanic voters, Flores-Macías said, Democrats need to “understand the different issues that are important to” Hispanic voters rather than treating them as a monolithic bloc.
“Midterm elections tend not to favor the party in the White House, but if Democrats continue to assume that Hispanics will vote for them just because they are an underrepresented group, they may be surprised again,” he said.
What This Means for the Midterms
A slip in support among Hispanic voters has major implications for Republicans in the midterms as they face a more challenging national environment boosted by Trump's declining national approval. Historically, the party in the White House loses seats, so a poor approval rating would raise the risk of seats lost. The president's approval has taken recent hits amid the Iran war, which has sent global fuel prices surging nationwide and created economic unease around the cost-of-living.
Polls showing a poor approval among Hispanic voters may be especially worrying for Trump because new GOP-drawn maps in Florida and Texas were built on the assumption that Hispanic voters would continue trending toward the party as they did in 2024. If their support collapses, those redraws would become less effective—or potentially even backfiring on Republicans in the Lone Star State.
Republicans redrew the map to make several seats in South Texas, a region with a high concentration of Hispanic voters, more conservative. It redrew seats held by Democratic Representatives Henry Cuellar of District 28, Vicente Gonzalez of District 34 and Greg Casar of District 35 to become more friendly to Republicans.
But if GOP support among Hispanic voters collapses, Democrats could hold onto those seats in November. That scenario could also make the more conservative seat held by Representative Monica De La Cruz of District 15 or the open seat in District 23 competitive.
What Do Other Polls Show About Trump's Hispanic Approval Rating?
Other recent polls have also indicated that Trump’s approval rating has declined among Hispanic and Latino voters.
An Atlas Intel poll showed that 37 percent of Hispanic voters approved of Trump, compared to nearly 63 percent who disapproved of his job performance. It surveyed 2,069 respondents from May 4-7 and had a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points.
Meanwhile, a CNN poll found that 77 percent of Hispanic voters disapprove of Trump, while only 23 percent approve of him. It surveyed 1,499 respondents from April 30 to May 4 and had a margin of error of plus or minus 2.8 percentage points.
How Hispanic and Latino Voters Have Shifted Over the Years
In April, GOP strategist Mike Madrid told Newsweek he views shifts among Hispanic voters as a “de-alignment.”
"I was very critical of that term. I characterize it as a de-alignment," Madrid said. "There has been this sort of rightward shift going on for the better part of a decade now. But this is more a movement away from the Democratic Party than it is a movement towards the Republican Party."
Trump came close to winning Latino voters in 2024, according to CNN exit polling. They backed Harris by only a 5-point margin, giving her 51 percent of the vote and Trump 46 percent.
That’s a major shift from 2020 when they gave former President Joe Biden 65 percent of the vote and Trump 32 percent. Even that was a slight rightward shift from 2016, when former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton won 66 percent of Latino voters, and Trump won only 28 percent.
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