Large majorities of more than 1,000 registered Latino voters in seven battleground states support gun reforms and access to abortion, according to polling data released Wednesday by Voto Latino, a national advocacy group focused on mobilizing Latino youth.
The online survey, conducted by the polling firm Change Research, a San Francisco-based polling firm, in early June, showed 86% of respondents thought mass shootings in the U.S. are either a crisis or major issue. The voters surveyed overwhelmingly backed a number of gun reform measures, including 82% who strongly supported requiring background checks on all gun purchases.
The voters surveyed were registered voters in Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Texas.
Nearly 90% either strongly or somewhat supported requiring people wanting to buy a handgun to go through gun safety training, and about two-thirds strongly or somewhat supported an assault weapons ban.
Respondents also expressed majority approval for increasing the minimum age to purchase a firearm to 21, as well as implementing “red flag” laws — designed to keep guns away from people deemed at risk to themselves or others — and mandatory waiting periods, among other reforms. Enhanced background checks and incentives for states to adopt red flag laws are among the narrow set of provisions in the bipartisan federal gun bill now in the Senate.
More than two-thirds of Latinos surveyed believe abortion should be legal in most or all cases, with the strongest approval among young people under 35 and women. Among those surveyed, 65% said they would support a law to protect the right to get abortion care throughout the U.S. Nearly two-thirds said they would be “more motivated” to vote in November as a result of the leaked Supreme Court draft opinion that would strike down the landmark abortion rights decision Roe v. Wade.
The poll has a margin of error of 3.1%.
In a news release, Maria Teresa Kumar, president and CEO of Voto Latino and an MSNBC political commentator, said she believes it’s “time to put to rest the myth that Latinos oppose abortion access.” She also called concerns about gun violence among Latino voters “visceral.”
“At a time when mass shootings and attacks on abortion access are front and center in our national politics, Latino voters are looking for candidates who support common sense gun policy as well as reproductive rights,” Kumar said. “These issues aren’t liabilities for progressive candidates looking for Latino support — they’re a major selling point. In battleground states, Latino voters stand squarely behind Democratic policies on these flashpoint issues.”
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