Wednesday, November 21, 2012

Are Hispanics really social conservatives?

Two-thirds of Hispanic voters said that abortion should be legal in most or all cases, compared with slightly more than half of white voters, according to exit poll results. Hispanics were also more liberal when it came to same-sex marriage, with 59% saying that it should be legal in their state, compared with 51% of blacks and 47% of white voters. Exit poll results also indicate that Hispanics are not necessarily racing to adopt the Republican platform of smaller government. Nearly 6 in 10 Hispanics said that Obama’s health care law should be expanded or left as is, compared to about a third of white voters. And 57% of Hispanics said that government should be doing more to solve the problems of individuals, compared to 36% of whites. Hispanics, like the rest of the electorate, were also in favor of raising income taxes in order to reduce the federal deficit. So for any Republicans crafting a strategy that focuses solely on Hispanic voters and immigration policy in order to win back the White House in 2016, they may want to re-examine the exit poll results from the 2012 election.

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