The performance of President-elect Trump among Latinos and Hispanics voters was one of the brightest spots on Election Day for Republicans, as the former presidential candidate made inroads within the crucial voting bloc.

Trump’s support for the Latino community has grown despite the negative reaction he received after a comedian made racist jokes at a rally in which he was seated. Trump barely flipped Central Florida’s Osceola County with a large Puerto Rican community by a little more than a percentage point. Comparatively, Biden won Osceola County by almost 14 points in 2020 and Hillary Clinton, the former secretary of state, won it by about 25 points in 2016.

In Arizona, the former President appeared to have surpassed his 2020 performance, despite the fact that votes are still being counted in the state.

CNN’s exit poll found that Vice President Harris won Latino voters in 2020 by a margin of 52 to 46 percent. This is a small lead over President Biden who led the group with 65 to 32 percent.

This cycle, Trump has won Latino men with a 12 point lead over Harris. That’s a 35-point swing from 2020 when Biden had won this group by 23 points. While Harris won easily among Latino women by pulling ahead of Trump with 22 points, this is a vast difference from the 39-point advantage that Biden held among the group just four years earlier.

Danielle Alvarez is a senior advisor to the Trump campaign. She said that “President Donald J. Trump has received historic support from Hispanics because he never wavered in his commitment to issues that are most important to our community, such as bringing down costs and restoring American prosperity. He also secured the border and ensured safety both at home and abroad.” “As President Trump stated in his victory address, it’s time to get down to business and deliver for American citizens.”

Democrats have known for years that Latino voters were shifting to the Republican Party. In Florida, especially among the Cubans and Puerto Ricans, the GOP gained ground in 2022. Gov. Ron DeSantis won 58 per cent of the Latino votes in Florida, including 68 per cent of Cuban Americans and a 56percent of Puerto Ricans.

In the polling conducted in advance of the 2024 elections, Trump saw promising signs, especially among Latinos and young Latino men.

Mike Madrid, Republican strategist and expert on Latino voting trends, said that the problem is more widespread than just one isolated young Latino man.

He said, “You cannot flip Osceola County by just having young Hispanic males.”

Madrid said that the shift in Latino voting is part of a longer-term generational trajectory.

He said, “It is the emergence a new kind of voter, a nonwhite working-class populist.”

Republicans claim that the swing in the polls is as much about a rejection of Democratic policies as it is an inclination towards the GOP, especially on issues such as immigration and the economy.

“If you go to South Texas, for example, and visit those communities, it’s been a longstanding concern that illegal immigrants are flooding into their communities,” said a Republican strategist. He added that Latinos also showed signs of leaning rightward on issues such as school choice and abortion.

A Pew Research Center poll released in March found that 75 percent of Hispanics referred to an increase in the number migrants crossing the southern border in the U.S. as a major problem or crisis, while 74 percent criticized the way the government handled the situation. A Pew Research Center poll released in March found that 75 percent of Hispanics in the U.S. referred to the increase in the number of migrants over the southern border as a “major problem or crisis,” while 74 percent were critical of how the government was handling the situation.

The strategist stated that Democrats treated minorities within their own party in the same way. “They treated Hispanic voters in Texas, Arizona, or fill in the blank, the same way they treated Black voters.”

This is not a coalition. This is laziness, and it’s taking people as granted.”

DJ Quinlan is a former executive of the Arizona Democratic Party. He suggested that it was even simpler. Latinos and Hispanics are affected by the same trends, as are other important voting blocs.

Quinlan said that it was a mistake to tell the story about Donald Trump’s victory as if more Latinos had voted for him. Instead, Quinlan should have looked at the broader social trend. “There was a broad, overall movement. I’ll say that it is primarily driven by economic anxiety and misinformation.”

“As a Latino, I am concerned that Latinos will be disproportionately affected by many of the policies that the Trump Administration seems to lean towards. I mean, specifically, things like repealing [the Affordable Care Act], and obviously mass deportation.”

After Trump’s massive rally in New York at Madison Square Garden late last month, many believed that his standing with Latinos was on the rocks. This is after comedian Tony Hinchcliffe called Puerto Rico a “floating garbage island” and made an offensive joke about Latinos procreating. Republicans like Sen. Rick Scott of Florida condemned the remarks while Trump and his team distanced themselves.

The Harris campaign used this controversy to increase its outreach to Latinos, which had already been ongoing. The controversy didn’t seem to have much of an impact on Latino voters in the end.

Dan Eberhart is a Trump contributor. “I believe it’s a paradigm change for American politics that could be bigger than this election,” said Dan Eberhart, a Trump donor.