Latina Voters Prefer President Obama by 53 Point Margin

With seven weeks until the election, Republican candidate Mitt Romney has a lot of work to do with the men and women of the Latin community.

According to the fourth week of the impreMedia/Latino Decisions tracking poll, Latina voters plan to vote for President Obama by a margin of 74 percent to 21 percent for Romney - a 53 point gap. Among Latino men, 61 percent plan to vote for Obama and 32 percent for Romney.

The Sept. 17 polling data suggest the President continues to solidify his lead among Latinos, and there are no signs of cracks in the Obama coalition among Latino voters. Overall, Obama holds 68 percent of the Latino vote to 26 percent for Romney, erasing the small bump Romney received in the September 3 (week 2) poll release following the Republican National Convention.

The poll showed that 78 percent of Latinas trust Democrats to make the right decisions and address their issues of concerns. Only 13 percent trust the Republicans to make those decisions. On the men side, 68 percent trust Democrats to make the right decisions versus 19 percent who trust the Republicans.

The poll suggests that Romney and the GOP are unable to connect with Latina voters for a variety of reasons.

Abortion and contraception consistently rank last among the most important issues to Latina and Latino voters. It almost does not matter how we conceive of "women's issues," a Latino Decisions spokeswoman wrote. "Democrats have taken positions much more favorable to Hispanic women - affordable health care, DREAM Act support, Sotomayor's nomination to the Supreme Court - compared to Republicans."

The poll revealed that Latina voters are more likely to say that the DREAM act is a priority issue, many Latinas - whether they are parents or not - think of the DREAM act as a long-term solution that provides economic and employment opportunities for their friends, children and larger community.

In November, Latino Voters will be a major force in deciding who will be the next President of the United States.

About 9.7 million Hispanics cast ballots in the November 2008 election that brought Barack Obama to the White House, compared with 7.6 million who did so in 2004, according to a 2011 study by the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials Educational Fund.

In the 2012 election, the Latino vote is anticipated to increase by 26 percent to 12.2 million voters, or 8.7 percent of the country's total.

The Census Bureau said in March that there were 50.5 million Hispanics in the United States in 2010 - that equates to one in every six Americans - and they contributed to more than half the country's population growth.