New survey shows 2 per cent of Latinos recognise term ‘Latinx’ and 40 per cent hate it

Comes as Democrats continue to bleed Latino voters.

Monday 06 December 2021 19:26 GMT
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A new poll shows that while few Latino voters recognise the term “Latinx,” more voters of Latin American descent are likely to hate the term.

A new Bendixen&Amandi International poll first reported on by Politico found that only 2 percent of voters of Latin American descent refer to themselves as “Latinx,” a gender-inclusive term meant to include queer voices and change from defaulting to use masculine nouns in Spanish.

Conversely, around 68 per cent of that same group refer to themselves as “Hispanic,” while 21 per cent refer to themselves as Latino or Latina and 8 per cent see themselves as “something else.”

But while a combined 57 per cent said that the term “Latinx” did not bother them, a combined 40 per cent said that the term bothered them “a lot,” “a little” or “somewhat.” Only 3 per cent had “no opinion.”

The number breakdown also doesn’t appear to fall neatly on age lines, as 41 per cent of 18 to 29-year-olds and 30 to 39-year-olds saying the term bothers them in some way or another but only 36 percent of 40 to 54 year-olds say the term bothers them.

The party differences are far starker, however, with 51 per cent of Republicans surveyed in saying it bothered them on some level while only 39 per cent of Democrats say it bothered them one way or another, while 60 per cent said it does not bother them.

The survey comes as Democrats continue to figure out how to win back Latino voters after former president Donald Trump grew his support not just with voters in South Florida, but also with Tejano voters in the Rio Grande Valley, in Pennsylvania and even in California.

Last month, Rep Ruben Gallego of Arizona, a Democrat, explained the problem to The Independent.

“But if the community as a whole does not use it and it feels forced upon the community to use it and I think that’s always going to have a very bad reaction,” Mr Gallego said. “Now, is someone going to vote against a Democrat because they use the term Latinx? No, I don’t think so. But you’re missing an opportunity to connect with a voter because you’re trying to take care of another constituency that really has no interplay and interconnection with this other constituency.”

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