Opinion: In 2024, Latinos opted for the couch, not Trump or Harris

A sign held up at a rally urges Latinos to register to vote File photo by Chris Stone Times of San Diego The voting is the latest facts point in a trend of increasing Republican endorsement among Latinos But in a new survey of over Latino eligible voters that Professor Roberto Suro and I designed and fielded through USC s Understanding America Inquiry a nuanced picture of this tendency emerges First the vote totals According to our survey Harris won of all Latinos who voted while Trump took However if we include nonvoters in the calculation they make up the largest slice of eligible voters with of Latinos sitting out the vote compared to voting for Harris for Trump and casting ballots for other candidates So it wasn t Trump but the couch that won the Latino vote In our survey contrary to prevalent media narratives Trump did not win bulk Latino men garnering of them versus Harris In comparison Harris won women by points at dwarfing Trump s However if we include eligible voters who sat out the electoral contest a different picture emerges Harris got of Latinas and of Latinos Trump got and respectively while of Latinas and of Latinos abstained Rather than Latino males switching to Trump in huge numbers the key factor in this voting process was the numbers that did not go out to vote and preponderance of them were Latina women In the face of this it is also key to highlight the ideological differences that emerge between Trump and Harris voters of Harris Latino voters stated that what happens to Latinos in general affects their lives while of Trump voters reported it would not This is a first sign that each candidate was talking to a distinct group of voters with largely diverging views This evidence point calls into question the existence of a cohesive Latino voting bloc bound by their identity After the electoral process the media story has been how macho Latino men turned to Trump because they did not want to vote for a woman Our analysis shows that in a large number of issues such as teachers roles in affirming young people s sexuality or debates over wokeness show partisan rather than gendered differences Where we did find a gender gap was in gender-based financial expectations and topics relating to men s role in society When required whether pressure to be financially effective weighs more heavily on men than on women of Latino men agreed compared to only of Latina voters This point gap points to a pronounced gendered economic anxiety This gets to the central issue with the Democrats Latine dilemma the Democratic party s reluctance to engage boldly on economic issues A political speech that greatly exemplifies this gambit Hillary Clinton s claim that If we broke up the big banks the following day would that end racism Would that end sexism during the primary in a jab against Bernie Sanders This quote exemplifies the abandonment of economic issues in favor of lip provision to racial and gender equality While these are worthy causes it is sad to realize that those policies in the past years have left the American people including Latines with little to show for them Putting identity first and economics second has led to Latines numerous of whom are working class uninspired by the academic takes of an elitist Democratic party Politicians such as Sen Ruben Gallego from Arizona have commented as much As Trump s gains during the last voting show talking to Latines about improving their material conditions as part of the American people might be the way to go Rather the Democrats are stuck in a stereotypical Chancla-Fiesta approach that is hyper-fixated on Latinidad and fails to seriously engage with the necessities of working-class people While the current administration s actions might turn selected Latine voters off especially if we enter an economic recession Democrats must talk about economic justice if they want to beat the couch Or even bring chosen Latinos for Trump back around Jos E M zquiz is a Ph D Candidate in political science and international relations at the University of Southern California and a Fulbright-Garcia Robles Fellow