Latinos hold broadly negative views of Donald Trump and see him as harmful to the image of the Republican Party, a new poll shows.
And they’re much more likely than other voters to view Trump as insulting and offensive, rather than as a truth-teller, according to the MSNBC/Telemundo/Marist poll released Monday morning.
The poll found 70% of Latinos hold negative views of Trump — including 60% who said they have a “very negative” impression of the front-runner in the GOP’s 2016 presidential race. That’s compared to 55% of U.S. residents and just 28% of Republicans who view Trump negatively.
Almost two-thirds of Latinos surveyed — 65% — say Trump is hurting the image of the Republican Party, while just 13% say he is helping the party.
And 70% of Latinos say they see Trump as insulting and offensive, compared to 26% who say he tells it like it is.
Though the poll shows that Trump currently performs poorly with Latinos, it’s not clear whether his hard-line stance on immigration would damage other GOP contenders.
Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush is the best-known Trump alternative among Latinos, with 31% viewing him positively and 29% negatively. He’s followed by Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, who’s viewed positively by 25% and negatively by 15%.
Nineteen percent of Latinos view Texas Sen. Ted Cruz positively and 15% view him negatively; 16% view Ben Carson positively and 7% negatively; and 8% view Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker positively while 9% view him negatively.
Among Latinos, Hillary Clinton is viewed more positively, topping all potential Republican candidates by wide margins. Vice President Joe Biden garners less support in the same match-ups in all cases except against Trump.
The survey was conducted in September. It included 432 Latinos, with a margin of error of plus or minus 4.7 percentage points.
