A new report reveals that Donald Trump’s win over Democrat Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election is largely due to Latino votes in the US, and that a large portion of those Latinos did not vote in the election.
The study by the Latino Victory Project, a coalition of Hispanic advocacy groups and organizations that tracks Latino voting patterns, shows that while Hispanic turnout rates declined by 9 percentage points among Latinos between 2008 and 2016, they actually increased by 13 percentage points between 2012 and 2016.
That was despite the fact that Latinos were only 2.4% of the voting population in 2012, according to data from the Census Bureau.
The report comes as President Donald Trump and Democrats continue to push to overhaul immigration laws that were enacted during the Obama administration.
Democrats also are seeking to make it easier for undocumented immigrants to obtain driver’s licenses.
“A substantial number of Latinos have not cast a vote in this election,” the report said.
“That is largely because the Latino community is largely inactive.”
In 2016, about 21 million Latinos participated in the presidential race, or about 6.4 percent of the total.
That figure was roughly three times the number of people who participated in 2000, according the report.
It’s important to note that the report does not include votes cast by non-Latino registered voters, who account for just about half of all Latino voters.
The Latino Victory project, which advocates for more diversity in the U.S. immigration system, says that while many Latinos are not voting, there are many that did.
“While there are still large gaps between Latino and non-Hispanic voters, it is becoming increasingly clear that the vast majority of Latino eligible voters are participating in this campaign,” the study said.
“We need to be clear: This is not a new problem, it’s a problem that is continuing to worsen.
We need to fix it.
We have to do better.”
The report also found that Latino turnout in the general election was down by 4.3 percentage points, but that Latino participation in presidential elections was up by 6.5 percentage points.
The Trump campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
