President Barack Obama’s popularity among Latinos has taken a beating this year.
Obama’s approval rating among Hispanics plunged 23 points from December of last year to November of this year, according to a Gallup poll released last week. His approval rating dropped more among Latinos than any of the 40 subgroups polled.
Some 75 percent of Hispanics approved of the job Obama was doing as 2012 drew to a close. The president had just won reelection with a whopping 71 percent of Hispanic votes, while Republican challenger Mitt Romney won only 27 percent -- the worst performance among Latino voters since Bob Dole’s unsuccessful 1996 bid.
But since then, Obama’s approval rating among Hispanics has tumbled to 52 percent, according to Gallup. While Obama’s approval rating dropped among most other ethnic, political and age groups polled by Gallup, the decline among Latinos was almost double the national average.
“Hispanics' approval ratings of Obama have shown the most variation of any group's ratings throughout his presidency,” Gallup writes. “That means their views of him are less firmly anchored than those of other groups, which may help explain why their opinions of the president soured more than any other group's in recent months.”
After winning the 2012 election, Obama faced a tough year, overseeing intractable budget showdowns and the error-laden rollout of the Affordable Care Act -- his most prominent legislative victory.
Gallup viewed the results as a “troubling sign for the Democratic Party, given that Hispanics represent an increasingly important segment of the electorate.”
Before You Go
