Francis Wilkinson, Columnist

Explaining Trump’s Hispanic Support

New research suggests that voters may be aligning their racial identities with their partisan identities.

February 25, 2020 at 1:00 PM UTC

Francis Wilkinson is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering US politics and policy. Previously, he was executive editor for the Week and a writer for Rolling Stone.

Democrats don’t want Hispanics to forget.
Photographer: GREGG NEWTON/AFP

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At a rally in New Mexico last September, President Donald Trump pointed to Steve Cortes, one of his most prominent Hispanic supporters, and asked him: “Who do you like more, the country or the Hispanics?”

The binary choice is telling. Trump was positing that “the country” is distinct from “the Hispanics,” some 59 million of whom happen to live in the country. That Trump made this statement in New Mexico, where Hispanics have been residing since before the U.S. existed, and while Trump was ostensibly appealing for Hispanic votes, only underscores how committed he is to keeping these two concepts in opposition.