Following Joe Biden’s election to the presidency, American media commentators and establishment politicians have been attempting to explain why the Democrats won at the top of the ticket but failed miserably down-ballot. Some party elders, such as former Senator Claire McCaskill and current Representative Jim Clyburn, have blamed a loss of “moderate voters” on divisive “identity politics” issues such as abortion, trans rights and defunding the police, while others have focused on the seeming defection of non-White voters to the Republicans.
This faltering support among voters of colour is widely cited as being central to the Democrats’ failure to flip Florida or Texas in November’s presidential election. Particular focus has been given to the voting patterns of the Latino electorate. In heavily Cuban neighbourhoods in Miami and Mexican-American districts along the Texas border, voters shifted drastically to the right – with support for Donald Trump increasing by up to 55 points in some counties.
In reality, the nationwide exodus of Latino voters to Trump is largely a false narrative. Nationwide, Latinos voted for Biden in roughly the same numbers as they did for Hillary Clinton in 2016 (about two-thirds Democrat to one-third Republican). Non-White voting blocs, which are widely listed as African Americans, Latinos and Asian Americans, were crucial to delivering decisive Blue victories in the urban centres of pivotal swing states, such as Philadelphia, Milwaukee, Detroit and Atlanta.
