Historic Night for Hispanics
For the first time ever, three Latino candidates - all of them Republicans - won top statewide offices. In New Mexico, voters elected the nation’s first Latina governor, Republican Susana Martinez. In Nevada, Republican Brian Sandoval won the governor’s race and became Nevada’s first Hispanic governor. And in Florida, Republican Marco Rubio won the U.S. Senate race.
Despite these big top-of-the-ticket wins for Republican Hispanic candidates, Latino voters continued their strong support for Democratic candidates nationwide. National House exit poll results show that Democrats had a nearly two-to-one advantage - 64 percent vs. 34 percent - over Republicans in U.S. House races among Latino voters.
This strong support for Democratic candidates continues a pattern among Latino voters. In 2006, according to the national exit poll, 69 percent of Latinos voted for Democratic candidates in their congressional district races, while 30 percent supported Republicans. In the 2008 presidential election, Latinos supported Democrat Barack Obama by a margin of more than two-to-one over Republican John McCain - 67 percent vs. 31 percent according to a Pew Hispanic Center analysis of the national exit poll.
The candidacies of Republicans Rubio and Sandoval drew sharply different levels of support from Latino voters. In Florida, Rubio captured 55 percent of the Latino vote in his race for the Senate - identical to the share of the white vote he won. In Nevada, however, Mr. Sandoval won just a third (33 percent) of the Latino vote in his race for governor; he did much better among whites, winning 62 percent of the vote according to the state exit poll. No exit polls were done in New Mexico, so it is not possible to analyze the voting patterns among Latinos and other groups in Ms. Martinez’s victorious gubernatorial campaign.
According to the national House exit poll, Latinos represented the same share of all voters this year that they did in 2006 (8 percent). Overall, more than 19 million Latinos were eligible to vote in this year’s midterm elections, more than in any previous election. Latinos also represent a growing share of all eligible voters and substantial shares of eligible voters in many states. More than 9 percent of eligible voters nationwide are Latino, up from 8.6 percent in 2006.
With the exception of Florida, in states where exit polling data are available, Democratic candidates won the Latino vote, usually by wide margins. In California’s Senate race, Democrat Barbara Boxer won 65 percent of the Latino vote while Republican Carly Fiorina won 28 percent. In California’s gubernatorial race, Democrat Jerry Brown won 64 percent of California’s Latino vote while Republican Meg Whitman won 30 percent. In Nevada, Latinos supported Democrat Harry Reid over Republican Sharron Angle by a greater than two-to-one margin - 68 percent vs. 30 percent. Latino voters in Arizona, Nevada and Texas similarly supported Democratic candidates over Republican candidates in Senate and gubernatorial races.
In Florida, Hispanic voters gave greater support to Republican candidates than elsewhere. As noted above, in Florida’s Senate race, more than half (55 percent) of Hispanic voters supported Republican Rubio over independent Charlie Crist (23 percent) and Democrat Kendrick Meek (21 percent). In Florida’s governor vote, 48 percent of Hispanic voters supported Democrat Alex Sink and half (50 percent) supported Republican Rick Scott, according to the state exit poll. Overall, Mr. Rubio’s share of the Hispanic vote was just five-percentage-points higher than Mr. Scott’s share of the Hispanic vote. The Hispanic vote in Florida has traditionally tilted more Republican than in other states, owing largely to the presence of the GOP-leaning Cuban-American community.
Just as in previous elections, Hispanics nationwide voted differently than white non-Hispanic voters. According to the national exit polls, white non-Hispanics supported Republican congressional candidates over Democratic candidates 60 percent to 37 percent. In 2006, half (51 percent) of white non-Hispanics voted for Republican candidates and 47 percent voted for Democratic candidates. In many state races, Republican candidates won the white non-Hispanic vote while Democratic candidates won the Latino vote.