Gary Segura, a pollster for Latino Decisions and a professor at Stanford University, told reporters on Wednesday that he believes the exit poll understated Latinos’ support for Obama by 4 points, and that the president actually won 75 percent of their vote.
In initially off-the-record comments to the Des Moines Register’s editors in October, President Barack Obama said that if he won re-election, he would owe it to Latinos.
“Should I win a second term,” Obama said, “a big reason I will win a second term is because the Republican nominee and the Republican Party have so alienated the fastest-growing demographic group in the country, the Latino community.”
Exit polls show the president’s prediction was on the mark.
The national exit poll estimated that about 10 percent of those who voted in the presidential election identified as Hispanic, marking Latinos’ highest-ever share of the electorate. Latinos backed Obama over challenger Mitt Romney a resounding 71 to 27 percent.
Gary Segura, a pollster for Latino Decisions and a professor at Stanford University, told reporters on Wednesday that he believes the exit poll understated Latinos’ support for Obama by 4 points, and that the president actually won 75 percent of their vote.
Segura estimates that Latinos gave Obama an extra 2.3 percentage points in the popular vote. If Romney had managed to nab just 35 percent of Latinos, he would have won the popular vote, Segura said. (President George W. Bush captured at least that share of Latinos in 2000 and 2004, showing Republicans are backsliding with the group.)
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