NBC News national political correspondent Steve Kornacki said on Wednesday that support for Republican nominee Donald Trump is growing among the Hispanic population in Pennsylvania ahead of the 2024 election.
Kornacki said Democrats have lost support in Hispanic-majority cities located in Berks County, Lehigh County and Luzerne County in the battleground state of Pennsylvania. Democratic support fell from 45 to 35 points between the 2012 and 2020 elections in Allentown, Pennsylvania, which has a 54% Hispanic population, according to election results from the past three presidential races.
“Take a look, here’s Allentown. Lehigh County, this has the highest concentration of Hispanics in Pennsylvania,” Kornacki said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” “It’s a 54% Hispanic, and look at this, the trend has been toward Republicans. The state was moving toward the Democrats between ’16 and ’20, but in Allentown, Clinton won it by 42 [points] in ’16, fell down to 35 in 2020. This is an area, we’ve talked so much about the polls showing Trump making more inroads with Latino voters, this is the kind of place where the Trump folks think this trend can continue.”
MSNBC’s Steve Kornacki Spells Out Good News For Republicans Among Swing State Hispanic Voters pic.twitter.com/g4Hswz7nQa
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Kornacki then pointed to past election results among Hispanics in Hazleton, Pennsylvania, which has a 63% Hispanic population. The city of Reading has a 67% Hispanic population and significantly decreased its support for Democrats from 64 points in 2012 to 45% in 2020.
“Again, look at this trend. It was blue in 2012, Hazleton was for Obama. And then Trump comes along, he carries it by 5, he improves it to 11. Again, this is a kind of place where Trump folks think they can do better,” Kornacki said. “And again, this is very much a majority Hispanic city. Or Reading … you just take a look right here. Overwhelmingly Democratic, but from 2012, when Barack Obama won re-election, to 2020 when Biden carried Pennsylvania. That’s a drop of basically 20 points in the Democratic margin here in a heavily Hispanic city.”
“So the trend in the most Hispanic cities in Pennsylvania, as the state was getting more Democratic in 2020, they were becoming more Republican,” Kornacki continued. (RELATED: CNN Political Director Breaks Down How Harris Is Polling Against Trump Days Following Campaign Launch)
President Joe Biden won the state of Pennsylvania 50% to 48.8% against Trump in the 2020 election. Trump won Luzerne County 56% to 42% and Berks County 53% to 45%, while Biden won Lehigh County 53% to 45%, according to results recorded by Politico.
Polls found Biden getting trounced among Hispanic voters regarding key issues, a demographic which has historically been a key voting bloc for Democrats. An Axios/Ipsos survey from April found Trump leading Biden by 22 points on the economy, 11 points on crime and seven points on immigration among Latino voters, while Biden held a nine point on abortion.
Trump won Pennsylvania 48.8% to 47.6% against former Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton in 2016, according to Politico.
CNN’s Harry Enten found Harris is faring better than Biden among Hispanic voters by six points.
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