Following an easy win in Nevada Tuesday night, Donald Trump bragged that he was "number one with Hispanics." The media also marveled at Trump's big win in the Southwest, reporting that 45 percent of Latinos had favored Trump. However, a senior analyst for the polling and research firm Latino Decisions is telling Trump to hold his horses — in fact, 93 percent of the Latinos in Nevada did not support Trump.
The confusion stems from a couple different factors, according to David Damore. For one, only a very small percentage of Latinos in Nevada identify as Republican — 55 percent call themselves Democrats and 29 say they're independents. In other words, when Trump bragged that he won the support of 44 percent of Latino Republicans, he's actually bragging about only 7 percent of the entire Latino population in Nevada supporting him. That means a whole 93 percent of Latinos in the state did not vote for Trump.
Weighing the total number of Latinos who caucused in both the Democratic and Republican elections, Trump only earned 2,600 votes out of 22,500 — or about 11 percent. Finally, in a separate poll that looked at Nevada and other general election battleground states, an overwhelming 80 percent of Latino voters said Trump's thoughts on immigrants and Mexicans gave them a less favorable opinion of the GOP overall.
"Sorry Donald," Damore concludes rather convincingly. "You are not No. 1 with Hispanics in Nevada." Read the full breakdown at Latino Decisions.