Two weeks ago, the country elected a new president, Joe Biden, with 309 electoral college and 79,041,490 popular votes, the most for any candidate in the history of the United States. The race was especially tight in some decisive battleground states, like Arizona, Georgia, Pennsylvania, and Nevada. Though the Latino community in the United States is neither homogenous in interest nor monolithic in voting patterns, post-election figures reveal historic Latino turnout, which is a win for democracy in itself. Additionally, figures indicate that Latinos overwhelmingly showed up to elect Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. Below we take a look at some of these numbers.
According to the American Election Eve Poll, Latinos delivered an estimated margin of 43 points to the Biden-Harris ticket nationally, with 70% of votes going to Joe Biden and 27% to Donald Trump. In key states, Latinos showed up to vote in the hundreds of thousands, delivering important net contributions to the Biden-Harris ticket.
Arizona
In Arizona, an estimated 600,000 Latino votes were cast, with 71% going to Joe Biden and 26% to Donald Trump, resulting in a 288,000 net contribution to Joe Biden. Additionally, Arizona voters flipped a Senate seat, electing Democratic Mark Kelly over incumbent Republican Martha McSally, with 67% versus 25% of the Latino vote.
Georgia
All eyes will remain on the historically Republican stronghold of Georgia, which will hold two Senate run-off races with the potential to give Democrats a majority in the Senate in January. It is estimated that Georgia’s Latino voter turnout doubled during this election, delivering the key state to Joe Biden. In Georgia, an estimated 160,000 Latino votes were cast, with 69% going to Joe Biden and 28% to Donald Trump for a net contribution of 64,000 votes for the Biden-Harris ticket.
Pennsylvania
The election was over for Donald Trump the moment the state of Pennsylvania was projected for Joe Biden. In this state, 290,000 Latino votes were cast, with 69% going to Joe Biden and 26% to Donald Trump, resulting in a 116,000 net contribution to the election of Joe Biden.
Nevada
In Nevada, an estimated 235,000 Latino votes were cast. 70% of these votes went to Joe Biden, and 25% to Donald Trump, delivering an 89,300 net contribution for the Biden-Harris ticket.
Considering the net contributions highlighted above and Joe Biden’s slim margins of victory in key battleground states, it is clear that Latinos played a critical role in his election. Latino political power is robust and growing, and, during this election, it rallied behind President-elect Joe Biden.