New poll shows presidential candidates losing ground to Obama among Latinos

By Tovin Lapan

Friday, March 9, 2012 | 3:26 p.m.

A new poll released this week shows all of the candidates who are vying for the Republican presidential nomination are losing ground to President Barack Obama among Latino voters, who now favor the incumbent by a six-to-one margin.

From Fox News Latino, which conducted the poll:

“(T)he Fox News Latino poll shows former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney with 35 percent of Latino voter support, to Texas Rep. Ron Paul's 13 percent, former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich's 12 percent, and former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum's 9 percent.

But the poll shows that the overwhelming choice among likely Latino voters is President Obama. In head-to-head match-ups none of the GOP candidates would garner more than 14 percent of the Latino vote come November, the poll said.”

The poll shows immigration as the fourth most important issue among Latino voters, after jobs and the economy, education and health care. Obama receives his lowest approval rating among Latino voters on the issue of immigration, with 41 percent disapproving of his work in that area.

Yet, Latino voters are overwhelmingly in favor of immigration reform measures that the Republican candidates have not embraced.

Among likely Latino voters, 90 percent support the DREAM Act, 85 percent favor a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants, and 82 percent believe undocumented workers help to grow the U.S. economy, according to the poll.

The poll also indicated that adding a Latino to the ticket could help the GOP candidates. Approximately one-third of those surveyed said they would consider voting Republican if there were a Latino on the ticket.

Of Latinos who voted for John McCain in 2008, forty percent said that they favored Obama while 38 percent said they would vote for Romney. Obama also leads Santorum 38 percent to 34, and Gingrich 40 percent to 38.

[email protected] / 259-8814 / @tovinlapan