Press Archive

Gore Expands Support Among Latino Voters

SAN ANTONIO, TX - The William C. Velásquez Institute (WCVI) announced the results of its latest Latino issues survey, conducted September 27-October 4 among 560 registered Latino voters, in the state of California. Latino registered voters in California would vote for Vice President Al Gore over Texas Governor George Bush by 67.8% to 15.8% with 14.1% undecided and less than 3% for the third party candidates if the election were held today. This is consistent with WCVI's January 2000 pre-primary survey in California of 234 Latino registered voters. That survey showed Gore with a 2-to-1 lead, 22.9% for Bush to 49.8% for Gore.

WCVI president Antonio González said "this is clearly bad news for Governor Bush, who has not been very competitive among Latinos in California throughout the year. He has clearly declined since the Republican and Democratic Party conventions in July and August of this year. Moreover, since California Latinos are considered a political bellwether for Latinos across the Pacific and Northwest, it may signal a collapse of support for Governor Bush among Latinos across the entire region."

"Governor Bush may be paying the price for being silent on key issues to Latino voters. For example the issue of fairness for undocumented workers registered relatively high among Latino electoral priorities. Moreover, it also registered an overwhelming consensus of over 80% support," González theorized.

Latino respondents ranked their priority issues in the following order, when asked to list the issues that would determine their vote in the November elections:

When asked about the specific pending legislation concerning the immigrants, Latino voters responding very supportively: Latino voters support the "NACARA parity proposal" in congress by 75.2% to 13.1% opposed and 11.8% with no opinion. California Latinos also support efforts to update the registry date to 1986 by 92.7% to 4.5% opposed and 2.9% with no opinion.

The WCVI survey was conducted by a team of trained bilingual pollsters operating from the WCVI call center in San Antonio, Texas. WCVI staff designed the instrument and managed the interviewers. The survey has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.1%.

GO TO COMPLETE CALIFORNIA SURVEY RESULTS