July was a rough month for President Donald Trump in the headlines – illegal immigrant family separations, Hollywood-launched offensives against the president, massive protests, and “overly friendly” meetings with both North Korea and Russia. But maybe it was not as bad as the media portrayed it: Trump’s approval is at 48%, higher than President Barack Obama at the same time in office, Rasmussen reported Friday.
How’s that possible? Well, Democrats probably won’t like what appears to be one key reason for Trump’s improved polling number.
A largely under-reported Harvard/Harris Poll published last week found that Hispanic support of Trump has improved by 10 points, spoiling assumptions about group identity.
In a world where the prevailing rhetoric of the Left is that Trump is anti-immigrant, the data “suggests that Hispanics may not be the entrenched liberal voting constituency that Democrats so often imagine,” wrote The Washington Times‘ Stewart Lawrence.
Furthermore, in the critical swing-state of Florida, GOP Gov. Rick Scott is surpassing his Democratic opponent among Hispanics in the senatorial race, according to a recent Mason-Dixon poll. But why would Trump and Republicans be seeing a significant upswing in Hispanic support?
“Hispanics, like most mainstream voters, are waking up to post-2016 America. Unemployment among Hispanics has fallen to its lowest level in decades, and there’s little doubt that Mr. Trump’s pro-business policies are the reason,” Lawrence wrote.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, while Hispanics constitute 18% of the national population, they represent almost 30% of the U.S. construction workforce. Why is this important? Because Trump’s $1 billion infrastructure plan will undoubtedly lift up a significant percentage of the Hispanic community, providing jobs that will rebuild our nation’s dilapidated airports, aging bridges, and pot-holed roads.
The mainstream media and the Left may attempt to promote the notion of monolithic Latino support for the Democratic Party, but as the data demonstrate, not all Latinos hold the same views of the president and the GOP.
Alexander Ruiz is a graduate of The United States Merchant Marine Academy, a veteran U.S Coast Guard law enforcement officer, and a licensed Merchant Mariner. He is a Californian native and currently a graduate student in political science at New York University.