Trump Is Losing Ground With Latino Voters: Economy and Deportations Fuel The Midterm Shift.

Latino voters are moving sharply away from President Donald Trump and the Republican Party ahead of the 2026 midterm elections, reversing some of the GOP's biggest gains from 2024 as frustration over the economy and immigration enforcement grows, according to a new survey.

The NBC News/Telemundo poll shows a particularly significant shift on respondents' assessment of Trump's handling of the economy, an issue that helped the president make historic inroads with Latino voters during the presidential election.

Two years ago, Latino voters gave Trump a 4-point advantage over then-Vice President Kamala Harris when asked who would better handle the economy. Now, Democrats hold a 21-point advantage over Republicans on the same issue.

The political consequences could be significant in November. Democrats currently lead Republicans by 24 points, 59% to 35%, when Latino voters are asked which party they want to control Congress. That advantage is twice the Democratic margin recorded at the same point in the 2024 election cycle.

Nearly one in five Latinos who voted for Trump in 2024 are also no longer supporting Republican control of Congress. Fourteen percent now favor Democrats, while another 8% are undecided.

Trump's overall approval rating among Latino voters has fallen to 27%. "What we can really say from this data is that 2024 was the outlier," Republican pollster Micah Roberts of Public Opinion Strategies, which surveyed Democratic firm Hart Research Associates, told NBC News.

Roberts called Latinos "the swingiest of swing groups" and described the movement since the presidential election as "stunning." Economic anxiety appears to be driving much of the change. Inflation and the cost of living ranked as the top concern, cited as the most important issue by 33% of Latino voters. Nearly two-thirds, 63%, said their family income is falling behind the cost of living.

Trump received particularly poor marks on those financial issues. Seventy-eight percent disapprove of his handling of the cost of living, and 74% disapprove of his handling of the economy. Another 65% believe Trump's policies have hurt economic conditions, compared with 23% who say they have helped. Among Latino independents, 72% say Trump's policies have hurt the economy.

Immigration is creating another vulnerability as two-thirds of Latino voters said the Trump administration's immigration enforcement policies have gone too far. While 83% support deporting undocumented immigrants who have committed serious crimes, only 37% support deporting every undocumented immigrant in the country.

The effects of the administration's enforcement campaign also appear to be reaching deeply into Latino communities. Thirty-one percent said they or someone close to them has begun carrying identification because of concerns about ICE enforcement, while 27% said they know someone who has been detained or deported by ICE during the past two years.

Those numbers could particularly matter in congressional races in Florida, Texas and other states where Republicans benefited from Trump's improved performance with Latino voters in 2024. They could also affect statewide contests in Texas and Nevada.

Seventy-two percent of Latino voters rated their interest in the midterms a 10 out of 10, up from 54% at the same point in 2024. Fifty-four percent said their vote this November is intended to send a message of opposition to Trump, compared with 21% who want to express support for him.

Latino voters appear to be moving away from Republicans faster than they are moving toward the Democratic Party, however. Sixty-two percent now hold negative views of the GOP, up 16 points from 2024. Yet Democrats have not improved their own image as 42% view the party negatively, four points higher than two years ago.

Democratic pollster Aileen Cardona-Arroyo said opposition to Trump and dissatisfaction with the economy may be enough to benefit Democrats in 2026, but the party still faces a longer-term challenge in building affirmative support.

The NBC News/Telemundo poll surveyed 800 registered Latino voters from Sept. 21 through Sept. 28 by telephone and online. Twenty percent of interviews were conducted in Spanish. The survey has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.