No Surprise Here: Latino Voters’ Buyers’ Remorse Is Growing

Let’s start off with a Bulwark focus group of Latino voters who cast their ballots for Trump last year. If they could have a do-over, none of them— not one— would:

• vote for Trump

• vote for Kamala

Adrian Carrasquillio reported that “The participants said they were angry over the state of the economy and frustrated by Trump’s handling of immigration and deportations. Asked to give the president a letter grade for his term thus far, six gave him D’s and one gave an F. Asked later about her grade, one participant who gave a D said she was just trying to be nice.

There were no A’s for America First.”

It’s another sign of growing buyers’ remorse among within America’s biggest minority group, which has been seen moving rightward. If the trend away from the GOP holds, this is going to sting the GOP badly, especially in California and Texas.

It’s hard for some of us to keeping mind that tens of millions of Americans admire Trump to this day. Earlier this week, The Economist reported that “Going into last year’s presidential election, the American economy was the envy of the world. Yet Americans did not feel that way, and that economic anxiety drove voters to Donald Trump. Since his return to office, approval of his stewardship of the economy has fallen, driven by his erratic trade policy and the stubbornly high prices at the till… Trump was re-elected on a wave of economic pessimism, telling voters that ‘incomes will skyrocket, inflation will vanish completely, jobs will come roaring back and the middle class will prosper like never, ever before’ during his second term. So far they have been disappointed. Ratings of his handling of the economy and inflation were net positive shortly after his inauguration. They have since fallen to strongly negative in the wake of his declarations of trade war and the ensuing response of investors. YouGov’s data also suggest Americans now disapprove of his handling of immigration, another issue central to his re-election… Some political issues disproportionately concern political partisans. Immigration is a key issue for Trump’s Republican base, as are taxes and government spending. Democrats are more worried about health care and climate change.”

And, according to polling, among Latino voters who backed Trump in 2024, his approval— and his party’s approval— are plummeting Somos Votantes / Global Strategy Group poll showed Trump’s approval among Latino voters has declined from around 43% in February to around 39% in May 2025. Among independents in that group it fell more sharply (43% to 29%). That same poll found that only about 38% of Latinos view Trump’s handling of the economy positively, while 56% believe the economy is getting worse under his administration. And on policy issues like immigration, many Latinos think Trump has gone too far (especially in mass deportations, risk of impacting non-criminal undocumented immigrants or long-term residents). Today, many Latinos believe that Trump’s priorities are misaligned with what they hoped for: focusing on things that matter to them (cost of living, health care, housing) rather than just immigration or border enforcement. For many Latino voters, economic issues are extremely salient, but immigration policy and related enforcement actions are also emotionally charged. Even if there’s disappointment on the economy, for some voters other issues (border policy, immigration enforcement) may still align with what they want, or outweigh their economic dissatisfaction and some of the data suggest that many Latino voters are in a “wait-and-see” posture rather than having made up their minds about whether to abandon support or switch parties. 

Democrats can’t get too cocky over this. The remorse isn’t universal or overwhelming— there are still substantial numbers who approve or are ambivalent. And many Latino voters are not yet fully committed to shifting away from Trump; some may stay aligned due to other issues, identity factors, fear of alternate policies, or partisan loyalty. Also, whether this remorse will meaningfully shift voting behavior (turnout, party switch, etc.) remains to be seen, but if Latino buyer’s remorse keeps growing it will bite Republicans hardest in competitive, Latino-heavy districts like CO-08 (Gabe Evans), AZ-06 (Juan Ciscomani), CA-22 (David Valadao), CA-03 (Kevin Kiley), and in districts with significant numbers of swing voters like CA-41 (Ken Calvert), NE-02 (open/Don Bacon), NY-17 (Mike Lawler). IA-01 (Mariannette Miller-Meeks), AZ-01 (David Schweikert), PA-07 (Ryan Mackenzie), WI-01 (Bryan Steil), IA-03 (Zach Nunn)…