Data from a new poll is highlighting the growing enthusiasm among Latino voters in the upcoming presidential election.
According to the survey conducted by the Hispanic Federation and Latino Victory Foundation, more than 7 in 10 registered Latino voters are "almost certain" they will vote in the November election.
It's a significant figure considering the Latino electorate is the second-largest voting bloc in the United States. About 36.2 million Latinos are eligible to vote this year, up from 32.3 million four years ago.
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Frankie Miranda is the president and CEO of the Hispanic Federation, and he told Scripps News that the poll reflects a shift in Latino energy since President Joe Biden decided to drop out of the race.
"Frankly, it is about the new landscape that we have right now with regards to the presidential election," Miranda said. "One of the things that we were facing as an organization — nonpartisan organization doing civic engagement, voter registration — was that a segment of our community were not interested. They were not engaged in this process. But now we see that 50% of respondents of our poll, they said that they are now more interested in the presidential election since Vice President Harris entered the presidential race."
According to the poll, the most important issues for Latino voters are inflation and cost of living. Miranda said that gives an opportunity to both Vice President Kamala Harris and republican presidential nominee Donald Trump to attract more Latino voters to their campaigns by spotlighting their stances on these issues.
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"Pocketbook issues are extremely important to our community, from cost of living to inflation and also affordability of homes," Miranda said. "So the campaigns have a great opportunity right now to really define these issues, these platforms. Because we also found in our poll that many Latinos are still wondering what exactly is the platforms for both candidates when it comes to these elections."
You can watch Scripps News' full interview with Frankie Miranda in the video player above.
