Placido Salazar

psalazar9@satx.rr.com

National Latino Opinion Leaders Survey: July 2017

National Institute
for Latino Policy
Latino Leaders on Trump,
(NiLP)
25 West 18th Street the Democrats, Latino
New York, NY
10011 Leadership and Some Issues
800-590-2516
info@latinopolicy.or By Angelo Falcn
g The NiLP Report (July 12, 2017)
www.latinopolicy.org

HIGHLIGHTS
Board of Directors
Jos R. Snchez Latino leaders continue to be overwhelmingly negative towards
Chair Trump Administration but are mixed on the likelihood of his
Edgar DeJesus impeachment
Secretary The Latino leaders feel Tom Perez isn't making the Democratic
Israel Colon
Treasurer Party more responsive to their community, but most want
Maria Rivera Latino voters to remain loyal to the party, and those who see
Development need to shift to a third party have no consensus on which.
Chair Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders are viewed as the most
Hector Figueroa
popular politicians, more popular than Latino politicians
Tanya K. Hernandez
Angelo Falcn The Latino legal defense funds are seen as the most effective
President Latino organizations.
Latino leaders who support statehood for Puerto Rico are
Follow us on unsure the US Congress would grant it.
Twitter and
Angelo's Facebook They overwhelming support a boycott of Texas in opposition to
Page its sanctuary cities legislation.
The Latino leaders overwhelmingly support the Palestinian
struggle for independence.

CONTENTS
Trump Responsiveness
Trump Approval
Alex Acosta
Impeachment

Democratic Party
Tom Perez
Third Party
Which Third Party?

Leadership
Popular Politicians
Effective Organizations

Issues
Puerto Rico
Boycott Texas?
Palestinians

As the Trump Administration moves beyond its first six months in

office, this survey asks Latino opinion leaders about its responsiveness
to Latinos and whether they think he will be impeached. On the other
side, we ask about Democratic Party outreach to Latinos and the
Latino opinion leaders' feelings about the need for Latinos to support a
third party.

The issue of the role of Latino leadership under Trump is also

addressed in this survey along two dimensions: the popularity of high-
profile national Latino and non-Latino politicians, and perceptions of
the effectiveness of leading national Latino organizations in dealing
with issues raised by the Trump White House. Finally the survey
explores some salient issues: should Texas be boycotted over SB4,
should Puerto Rico become a state, and do the Latino opinion leaders
support the Palestinian struggle for independence?

The National Institute for Latino Policy (NiLP) has been trying to track
elite Latino opinion on the Trump Administration through our
National Latino Opinion Leaders Survey. Previous to the current
survey, we conducted one in Marchand May also focusing on Trump.
The purpose is to see if Latino leadership views of this Administration
have worsened, improved or stayed the same. This approach is an
effort to go beyond the opinion of only specific individuals and
organizations to a wider range of leaders from throughout the country.

To our knowledge, no comparable ongoing survey of Latino opinion

leaders exists at present. The National Latino Opinion Leaders Survey,
therefore, is a unique resource that provides yet another window into
the views of this important segment of the national electorate. Because
there are no clear parameters for determining the precise
demographic mix of Latino opinion leaders, we do not report on the
results of this survey for the total respondents but rather report on
specific subsets. The main subset we use consists of the main racial-
ethnic groups represented --- Puerto Ricans, Mexicans and Other
Hispanics (which includes other Central and South Americans).

This survey was conducted on July 5-10, 2017 and includes 242
respondents from throughout the United States Since this is not a
scientifically derived sample of community leaders, our results are
only suggestive but we believe they can be useful in putting the issues
involved in some context. The pool for these respondents is made up
of experienced Latino professionals and academics in all fields. Please
note that their views are not generalizable to the entire Latino adult
population in the United States but may be to this particular
activist/professional stratum.

In this analysis, we refer rom time to time to the results of earlier NiLP
surveys. To make it easier to read, we have collapsed these previous
results to all Latino opinion leaders when this total accurately reflects
a common opinion among all three groups of Latino opinion leaders ---
Mexicans, Puerto Ricans and Other Latinos.

Trump Responsiveness

Trump Approval. The Latino opinion leaders continued to be

overwhelmingly negative toward President Trump. In our May survey,
93 percent disapproved of the job he was doing. In the current survey,
he was disapproved by 92-94 percent of the Latino opinion leaders.
 Alex Acosta. Taking the only Latino in the Trump Cabinet as an
example, the Latino opinion leaders were asked if the Secretary of
Labor, Alexander Acosta, was effectively advocating for Latino
interests. In our May survey only 8 percent thought he would be
adequately responsive to the needs of the Latino community. In the
current survey, only 2-5 percent of the Latino opinion leaders thought
he was an effective advocate on Latino issues within the Trump
Administration.

Impeachment. With six months in office to assess, the Latino

opinion leaders were asked what they thought would be the likelihood
of President Trump being impeached. In our May survey, 80 percent
thought very strongly and somewhat that he should be impeached. In
the current survey, however, 57-61 percent of the Latino opinion
leaders felt that Trump was likely to be impeached, a much lower level
than their feeling that he should be impeached.

Democratic Party

Tom Perez. The Latino opinion leaders have been negative about
the Democratric Party's outreach to the Latino community. We now
asked them to assess the impact of the first Latino to chair the party,
Tom Perez. In March, they were very mixed about whether they
thought his election as DNC Chair would make the party more
responsivve to the Latino community: 33 percent thought it would be
more responsivce, 29 percent that it wouldn't, and 38 percent didn't
know or were not sure. In our May survey, 80 percent felt that the
Democratic Party was not adequately reaching out to the Latino
community.

In the current survey, asked if Perez has made the Democratic Party
more responsive to the Latino community, only 1-9 percent of the
Latino opinion leaders felt he has. The Puerto Rican opinion leaders
were the most negative toward Perez, with 56 percent feeling that he
has not made the party more responsive or has made the situation
worse. This is compared to 24 percent of the Mexicans and 34 percent
of the Other Latinos.
 Third Party. Considering the general discontent with the
Democratic Party, the Latino opinion leaders were asked if they
thought Latinos should shift loyalties to a third political party. The
Mexican opinion leaders gave the least support to switching partes,
with 26 percent supporting such a move compared to 45 percent of
the Puerto Ricans and 42 percent of the Other Latinos. The Mexican
opinion leaders were also the most undecided about switching (23
percent), compared to the Puerto Ricans (10 percent) and the Other
Latinos (12 percent).

Which Third Party. Those Latino opinion leaders feeling the

need to switch to a third party were also asked to identify which party
that would be. The largest percentage (46-61 percent) didn't know
which party. The third party getting the most support from the Latino
opinion leaders was Bernie Sanders' Peoples Party (20-32 percent), a
party that doesn't exist yet. It was followed, far behind, by the La Raza
Unida Party (3-9 percent), a party that has not been in operation for
over three decades.

Leadership

Popular Politicians. The Latino opinion leaders have identified a

national Latino leadership vacuum udner President Trump. To take a
different look at thisquestion, we presented the Latino opinion leaders
with a number of national politicians who have been in the news to see
which they approved and disapproved of.

Contrary to some expectations, the Latino opinion leaders gave non-

Latino polticians higher favorability ratings than Latinos. Bernie
Sanders and Elizabeth Warren consistently were rated most favorably
by the three groups of Latino opinion leaders. Among the Latino
politicians, Julian Castro and Luis Gutierez were the most popular.

Again contrary to expections, Donald Trump did not get the highest
disapproval ratings by all three groups pf Latino opinion leaders. The
Mexican Opinion leaders were most disapproving of Jared Kushner,
the Puerto Ricans of Ted Cruz, and the Other Latinos of Donald Trump.

The two politicians the Latino opinion leaders didn't recognize the
most were Helen Aguirre Ferre and Steve Cortes. This is interesting
because theyare both major Trump spokepersons one would think
would have greater recognition by the Latino opinion leaders.

To see the full list of politicians rated, click here.

Effective Organizations. The front line in the resistance to the

Trump Administration are the national Latino civic organizations. The
Latino opinion leaders were presented with a list of the more
prominent groups in this category and asked to rate the effectivenss of
each in addressing issues raised by Trump, including whether or not
they have heard of the organization. In our May survey, 77 percent
thought that the Latino leadership overall was not being forceful
enough in resisting Trump policies that were harmful to the Latino
community.

The organizations that are seen as most effective by the Latino opinion
leaders are MALDEF, NCLR (now UnidosUS) and LatinoJustice
PRLDEF. It is significant that two of the three organizations thought by
them to most effective as legal defense funds.

For the Mexican opinion leaders, their pick for the top most effective
are organizations with roots in the Mexican-American community,
while for Puerto Ricans the top one has its roots in the Puerto Rican
community, but the next two are those with Mexican-American roots.
For the Other Latinos there is a greater mix.

The Latino opinion leaders were most negative toward the

conservative, religious and business organizations such as The Libre
Initiative and the US Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.

The organizations with the lowest national recognition (by those

stating they never heard of it or didn't know or were unsure) are the
Dominican-American National Roundtable, The Libre Initiative, the
Cuban American National Council, the National Puerto Rican Coalition,
and the Southwest Voter Registration Education Project. This could be
for a range of reasons depending on the organization. These could
include ideological differences, the more local or regional focus of the
group, the organization's focus on its own national-origin group, or an
organization's inactivity.

To see the full list of organizations rated, click here.

 Issues

Puerto Rico. Currently, the Governor of Puerto Rico, Ricard

Rossell, and his political party, the New Prorgessive Party, are
conducting a campaign to press the United States Congress to admit
Puerto Rico as the 51st state. The Latino opinion leaders were asked if
they support statehood for Puerto Rico or not.

Support for statehood was stronglest among the Mexican opinion

leaders (55 percent). This is in comparison to 35 percent of the Puerto
Ricans and 33 percent of the Other Latinos. However, of those
supporting statehood, large percentages didn't think the US Congress
would grant it: 42 percent of the pro-statehood Mexican opinion
leaders, 52 percent of the Puerto Ricans, and 72 percent of the Other
Latinos.

Boycott Texas? The adoption by the State of Texas of Senate Bill

4 outlawing so-called "Sanctuary Citities" by instituting "show me your
papers" rules is soon to take effect in September. There have been
protests and legal challenges from Latinos and others over this
legislation. A number of Latino leaders and organzations have called
for a boycott with doing business with Texas that would include not
holding conventions and other events in the state.

The Latino opinion leders were asked whether or not they supported
such a boycott. All three groups of Latino opinion leaders
overwhelmingly supported it (73-88 Percent). The Puerto Rican
opinion leaders had the highest percentage of those who didn't know
enough about this issue to comment (15 percent), compared to 2
percent of the Mexicans and none of the Other Latinos.

Palestinians. We have looked in the past into Latino opinion

leaders' views on Israel and on anti-Semitism. In this survey, we asked
them their views on the other side of the conflict in the Middle East,
the Palestinian struggle for independence.

All three groups of Latino opinion leaders were overwhelmingly

supportive of the Palestinian struggle (79-83 percent). Of those
responding that they were more supportive of Israel, the Mexican
opinion leaders had the much highet percentage indicating so (13
percent) than the Puerto Ricans (3 percent) and the Other Latinos (5
percent).
 _________________________________________________________________________________________________
______
The NiLP Report on Latino Policy & Politics is an online information service
provided by the National Institute for Latino Policy. For further information,
visit www.latinopolicy. org. Send comments to editor@latinopolicy.org.

National Institute for Latino Policy (NiLP), 25 West 18th Street, New York, NY 10011-
1991

SafeUnsubscribe psalazar9@satx.rr.com
Forward email | Update Profile | About our service provider
Sent by editor@latinopolicy.org