Majority of Latino voters support Barack Obama

"The World’s" Julia Kumari Drapkin talks to the Pew Hispanic Center’s Mark Hugo Lopez about how Latinos may be voting this November.

According to the latest survey by the Pew Hispanic Center in Washington, D.C., Latino voters support Democrat Barack Obama over Republican John McCain by 66% to 23%.

Lopez says he was surprised by the degree in which Latinos support Obama — among registered Latino voters, 66% would vote for Obama if the election were held today — that’s a 3 to 1 advantage for the Democratic presumptive nominee.

Lopez was also surprised by how quickly and completely Latino voters who supported Hillary Clinton during the primaries turned their support to Obama, despite all of the discussions about the potential problem with Latino voters not wanting to vote for a black candidate.

The survey found that the most important issues among Hispanic voters were education, cost of living and healthcare; immigration didn’t rank as high. The survey also revealed that Latino voters are identifying more with the Democratic Party than they have in the last two elections.

Lopez thinks the four states that have significant Latino populations could potentially be battleground states come November: Florida, Colorado, Nevada and New Mexico.

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