Review of Latino Impact on Election

Pew Hispanic Center Releases a Report on the Hispanic Vote in the Presidential Election

Hispanics voted for Democrats Barack Obama and Joe Biden over Republicans John McCain and Sarah Palin by a margin of more than two-to-one in the 2008 presidential election, 66% versus 32%, according to a new report from the Pew Hispanic Center, a project of the Pew Research Center. The report finds that 8% of the electorate was Latino, unchanged from 2004. Nationwide, the Latino vote was significantly more Democratic this year than in 2004, when President Bush captured an estimated 40% of the Hispanic vote, a modern high for a Republican presidential candidate.1 Obama carried the Latino vote by sizeable margins in all states with large Latino populations. His biggest breakthrough came in Florida, where he won 57% of the Latino vote. President Bush carried 56% of the Latino vote in Florida in 2004. Obama's margins were much larger in other states with big Latino populations. He carried 78% in New Jersey, 76% of the Latino vote in Nevada, 74% in California, and 73% in Colorado. This report contains an analysis of exit poll results for the Latino vote nationally and in the states of Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico and Texas. The report is available on the Center's website at www.pewhispanic.org.