Hispanic voters more enthusiastic about Harris, governor says

Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham told a national television audience on Sunday that Vice President Kamala Harris’s decision to enter the 2024 presidential race was reenergizing voters, including Hispanics whose support for Harris is soaring.

Lujan Grisham, appearing on CBS news program “Face the Nation,” cited a new New York Times/Siena College poll that found Harris leading former President Donald Trump by 19 percentage points among Hispanic voters – 57 to 38 percent. An earlier poll, before President Biden dropped out, showed Biden beating Trump by one percentage point among Hispanic voters, she said.

“Since his (Biden’s) personal decision to certainly put democracy first, I will say, I’m seeing a reenergized ... particularly with young voters, which I think is now playing out in national polling,” said Lujan Grisham, who is a member of Harris’ campaign advisory board.

Lujan Grisham noted that New Mexico has the largest percentage of Hispanic voters per capita in the country, “and that there was a bit of a, if you will, stalling out, and that I found very concerning.”

In New Mexico, 45% of all eligible voters are Hispanic or Latino, the Pew Research Center reported earlier this year. New Mexico is also the only state in which Latinos make up a higher share of the total eligible voter population than any other racial or ethnic group. This includes Americans who are listed as white alone and non-Hispanic, who account for 40% of New Mexico’s eligible voters, the center found.

Michael Coleman, the governor’s communications director, said on Monday that Lujan Grisham “is highly confident in the vice president’s ability to rally New Mexico voters — including younger Hispanic voters — to support her campaign and elect Democrats up and down the ballot.”

But Republican Party of New Mexico chairman Steve Pearce said in a statement on Monday, “It is misleading to imply that Harris is gaining momentum with Hispanic voters with a 19 percent lead over Trump because it fails to mention that President Biden had a 33 percent lead among Hispanics in 2020.”

Harris’ support with Hispanic voters is down, Pearce’s statement said, while Trump is subsequently gaining support among this demographic.

Most reports say that Biden-Harris won 63 to 65 percent of the Hispanic vote in 2020. Trump won 38 percent of Hispanic voters in 2020, which was up from 28 percent in 2016, said a spokeswoman for Pearce Monday evening.

“We are already seeing the effects of the national shift from minority voters to Republicans here in New Mexico in the down-ballot races,” Pearce stated. “Yvette Herrell and Nella Domenici are sitting neck and neck with their Democratic challengers.”

Herrell, a Republican, is hoping to win back her 2nd Congressional district seat from U.S. Rep. Gabe Vasquez, a Democrat elected in 2022. Domenici, a political newcomer, is hoping to unseat Democratic incumbent U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich in the Nov. 5 general election.

The congressional delegation turned all-Democratic in 2022 with Vasquez’s election and the reelection of Teresa Leger Fernández, the first Hispanic woman elected to the historically Democratic 3rd Congressional District.

In presidential elections, turnout rates among Hispanic Americans have typically trailed those of some other groups.

During her interview with reporter Robert Costa on Sunday’s show, Lujan Grisham appeared to make a pitch for Arizona’s U.S. Senator Mark Kelly to be Harris’s running mate.

Coleman on Monday added, “The governor certainly thinks that Sen. Kelly would be an excellent VP pick, but as she said on ‘Face the Nation,’ it’s not her decision to make. She feels strongly that Vice President Harris has a strong bench of Democrats to choose from in addition to Sen. Kelly.”