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Poll: 40% of Latinos say the term 'Latinx' is offensive; nearly a third less likely to vote for candidate who uses it

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If Democrats want to keep winning the Latino vote, they’ll need to stop using the politically correct and gender-neutral word “Latinx” to do so.

The term, which was invented by far-left academics and activists to change the Spanish language to be more inclusive of people who identify as transgender and gender non-binary, is highly unpopular with Hispanic Americans. In fact, according to a new nationwide poll of Hispanic voters, many find it downright offensive.

Among those surveyed by Bendixen & Amandi International, a top Democratic firm that specializes in Latino outreach, only 2% said they refer to themselves as Latinx. Most respondents, 68%, call themselves “Hispanic,” and 21% said they prefer to use “Latino” or “Latina” to describe their ethnic background.

The number of Latinos who use the term “Latinx” is unchanged from a 2019 poll that also found the fake descriptor to be the least popular ethic label among Latinos. Though progressive politicians and media outlets have insisted on using “Latinx,” political strategists have cautioned that imposing a label on people who do not use it to describe themselves might be a bad political strategy.

The poll confirms this is so: 40% of respondents said “Latinx” bothers or offends them, and 30% said they would be less likely to vote for someone that uses the term — including nearly a quarter of Democrats surveyed.


Democratic strategists are hitting the panic button as the 2022 midterm elections approach. President Joe Biden’s poll numbers are tanking amid historic inflation and the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Smart observers have noticed how former President Donald Trump made gains with women and Latino voters in 2020 and how Hispanic voters propelled Virginia Republican Glenn Youngkin to victory in last month’s gubernatorial election.

So, when the president or other national Democrats insist on using words like Latinx, the fear is they are demonstrating how they are out of touch with voters they’ll need to keep control of Congress.

“The numbers suggest that using Latinx is a violation of the political Hippocratic Oath, which is to first do no electoral harm,” Democratic pollster Fernand Amandi said in an interview with Politico. “Why are we using a word that is preferred by only 2 percent, but offends as many as 40 percent of those voters we want to win?”

“By insisting on using the incorrect term Latinx, progressives are engaging in a type of cultural Marxism, a recast of societal norms,” said Virginia Republican Attorney General-elect Jason Miyares, a Cuban American who will be the first Hispanic to hold the office in the state. “Latinos don’t use the term — only upper-educated white liberals who hardly interact with the Latino community. I believe that every time they use the term Latinx, they lose another Latino vote.”

But others, like Democratic strategist Chuck Rocha, a former senior adviser to former presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), suggest that GOP gains with Hispanics have nothing to do with the words they’re using. Given that 57% of poll respondents said they aren’t “bothered or offended” by the term Latinx, it can’t be the only reason Hispanics are shifting rightward.

“The only reason they made inroads is they actually started communicating and talking to Latinos, who they just never took the time to talk to in years past,” Rocha said.

A Pennsylvania Senate Ad against Biden’s Spending Plan

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The U.S. Ambassador to Denmark, Carla Sands, poses at the U.S. election party at the National Museum in Copenhagen, Denmark, November 3, 2020. (Martin Sylvest/Ritzau Scanpix via Reuters)

As I noted on Tuesday, the crowded Republican field in the Pennsylvania Senate race somehow has no candidates who have ever been elected to public office. It now has a major celebrity candidate in Mehmet Oz. Republicans ought to give Dr. Oz a hearing, given the electoral assets he brings to the table, but it would be foolhardy to let him walk to a nomination without proving himself against a serious primary test.

The one experienced public servant in the race, former ambassador Carla Sands, just dropped a $1 million TV buy behind an ad attacking Joe Biden’s Build Back Better spending plan. It’s perhaps the first major ad campaign, at least in a big swing state, by a Republican candidate taking direct aim at Biden’s plan, and while the ad is a simple one, it is a reminder: Sometimes, the best way to stand out in a primary race is not by attacking your primary opponents but by previewing your willingness to go on offense against the other party.



‘Dangerous and Misguided’ — City Council Democrat Attacks NYC’s Non-Citizen Voting Bill

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Comes today an email from Reverend Rubén Díaz, New York City councilman from the Bronx (District 18), a lifelong Democrat and former state senator who takes to task the plan to permit non-citizens to vote in local elections. Its text follows in full:

You should know that on December 9, 2021, a vote is scheduled to take place in the New York City Council that could allow 800,000 noncitizens to vote in local elections in our city, including the race for Mayor, Comptroller, Public Advocate, and City Council.

This is a dangerous and misguided effort being made by some elected officials to overlook the law which offers citizens—not noncitizens—in New York City, the right to vote.

You may already know that Mayor-Elect Eric Adams won the June 2021 Democratic Primary by only 7,197 votes. In the November 2021 General election, Adams received a total of 271,834 votes—a fraction of 800,000.

You should know that if this City Council Intro 1867 passes, regardless of its actual legality, New York City, which is home to both the United Nations and Wall Street could easily be taken over by any group of noncitizens who live here for 30 days and vote for the leader of their choice.

Why would we ever make ourselves vulnerable to this kind of possible threat?

Although lawlessness may seem to be in fashion these days, I urge you, my dear reader, to oppose efforts to ignore the actual law and instead permit noncitizens, the right to vote and to raise your voices and be heard against this radical agenda.

It is important for you to know that much of my life’s work as an elected official has been working closely with many noncitizens and celebrating many ethnicities.

For example, in 2006, I organized and led “The Great Walk in Solidarity with Immigrants,” one of the largest rallies where thousands of documented and undocumented immigrants marched in New York City;

I was the most outspoken Member of the New York State Senate on the DREAM Act, and my support for DACA is fervent;

I played a significant role with the IDNYC Program, offering documented and undocumented New Yorkers a way to receive discounts at museums and cultural institutions, libraries, banks and credit unions, movies, plays, BigAppleRx prescription drugs, fitness and health centers, Food Bazaar supermarket, veterans designation benefits, and animal care centers;

I worked very hard to ensure that our immigrant community would be counted in the annual census, without fear of ICE.

It is important for you to know that when a permanent resident applies to become a naturalized citizen, there is a rigorous process of study and testing to guarantee that new citizens understand the basics of the history of the United States of America and how our government functions. Under the New York City Council proposal, 800,000 noncitizen voters with no comparable understanding of the history of this country and government could, with nothing more than 30 days of residency here, be allowed to pick a name at the ballot box with no understanding of what that office is.

Ladies and gentlemen I fully support our immigrant community, but I also respect our laws and cherish my privilege as an American citizen to vote. I encourage all New Yorkers to pay close attention to what is going on here. I don’t believe that this proposal will hold up in court if it is passed by the City Council, so stay tuned.

More Pills the Democrats Will Find Hard to Swallow

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President Joe Biden addresses a joint session of Congress as President Kamala Harris (left) and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) applaud at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., April 28, 2021. (Chip Somodevillaat/Pool via Reuters)

As I wrote in October, “Ruy Teixeira is the co-author . . . of the 2002 book The Emerging Democratic Majority. He is probably more responsible than anyone for the rise of smug Democratic projections that demography would sweep them into power and consign Republicans to the dustbin of history” — and he has been raising ever-increasing alarms that Democrats are now fatally out of step with ordinary voters by virtue of their capture by “woke” academic cultural leftism. As he writes in a recent newsletter, “It’s not a good look for the party of the working class to be losing so much working class support that it’s no longer, well, the party of the working class. But of course it goes way beyond the look to the realities of electoral performance and political power. Put simply, there’s just no way Democrats can maintain a consistent hold on political power with this level of working class support.”

Teixeira has some very good advice for Democrats:

A Democratic brand reset is clearly in order to stop the bleeding among working class voters, along the lines suggested by the Jacobin study. A good way to start would be to embrace widely-held American views and values that are particularly strong among the multiracial working class.

  • Equality of opportunity is a fundamental American principle; equality of outcome is not.
  • America is not perfect but it is good to be patriotic and proud of the country.
  • Discrimination and racism are bad but they are not the cause of all disparities in American society.
  • No one is completely without bias but calling all white people racists who benefit from white privilege and American society a white supremacist society is not right or fair.
  • America benefits from the presence of immigrants and no immigrant, even if illegal, should be mistreated. But border security is still important, as is an enforceable system that fairly decides who can enter the country.
  • Police misconduct and brutality against people of any race is wrong and we need to reform police conduct and recruitment. But crime is a real problem so more and better policing is needed for public safety. That cannot be provided by “defunding the police”.
  • There are underlying differences between men and women but discrimination on the basis of gender is wrong.
  • There are basically two genders but people who want to live as a gender different from their biological sex should have that right and not be discriminated against. However, there are issues around child consent to transitioning and participation in women’s sports that are complicated and not settled.
  • Racial achievement gaps are bad and we should seek to close them. However, they are not due just to racism and standards of high achievement should be maintained for people of all races.
  • Language policing has gone too far; by and large, people should be able to express their views without fear of sanction by employer, school, institution or government. Good faith should be assumed, not bad faith.

Besides positively embracing these views it is necessary for major Democratic officeholders and candidates to actively dissociate themselves and their party from the woke stances that contradict these views and tarnish their brand among working class voters. That entails not just saying that one does not endorse now-familiar strands of cultural leftism but in some well-chosen places directly criticizing by name some who hold extreme views that are associated with the Democrats. That will be of great assistance in getting the message through to average working class voters.

I predict that some Democratic politicians will be smart enough to take a good deal of this advice at the state, local, and House district level, but not until they receive a 1988-style national repudiation is the party’s elite likely to truly internalize the message.

School Closures Drove Suburban Biden Voters to Youngkin, Focus Group Finds

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Then Virginia Republican gubernatorial nominee Glenn Youngkin gives a thumbs up to the crowd during a campaign event in Leesburg, Va., November 1, 2021. (Elizabeth Frantz/Reuters)

A few weeks ago, I speculated that the endless school closures provided the initial spark for the backlash among Virginia’s parents that played a key role in Glenn Youngkin’s upset victory. Since then, a Democratic polling firm has conducted focus groups with voters in the Virginia suburbs who switched from Joe Biden to Youngkin, and found pretty much the same thing.

“These swing voters didn’t agree with what they thought the liberal position on race in schools was,” ALG Research writes in a summary report. “However, it wasn’t as salient as the fact that they felt Democrats closed their schools and didn’t feel bad about it. They also knew about his debate quote on parents; it clearly burned in and resonated with them.”

The report also notes:

School closures + COVID policy were a bigger factor than CRT. These voters were more animated talking about their dissatisfaction with their local school districts’ handling of COVID. They felt buffeted by changing and inconsistent policies and concerned about the impact on student learning loss, and there was a sense among some that Virginia was not following the science by keeping schools closed later than other states. One participant, a Biden voter, stated flat out that her vote for Youngkin “was against the party that closed the schools for so long last year.”

School closures turned out to be completely unnecessary from the perspective of reducing COVID-19 spread, and as Robert VerBruggen noted yesterday, another new study has show that remote learning was a complete disaster.

I saw the focus group results via Jon Favreau, the liberal Pod Save America co-host and former Barack Obama speechwriter, who was urging his Democratic followers to take a close look at it.

If the takeaway of the Virginia race is to make Democrats at least slightly more skittish about COVID-19 restrictions in the future, that alone will have made it worthwhile.