Latino leaders are refusing to accept exit poll data showing President-elect Donald Trump won 29 percent of the Hispanic vote Tuesday.
Instead the leaders said they stand by the findings of Latino Decisions polling firm, whose data showed Trump a record low 18 percent of Latinos voted for Trump.
"We strongly dispute exit poll reports that suggest Trump support for the Latino community exceeded that of Mitt Romney in 2012," Janet Murguía, president of the National Council of La Raza, said at a Thursday news conference in Washington, D.C. Several other leaders were at the news conference and echoed her remarks.
Election Day exit polling showed the 13 million Latinos who turned out made up 11 percent of the electorate. The polling showed Latinos broke 65 percent for Clinton to 29 percent for Trump. In 2012, President Barack Obama got 71 percent of the Latino vote, while Romney finished with 27 percent.
The groups also criticized media for accepting and reporting the exit poll numbers.
"It is an insult to us as Latinos to keep hearing the media ignoring empirical data that was presented by Latino Decisions and representing an alternative number that we do not accept and we reject," Murguía said.
