Latino voters in battleground states back gun reform and abortion access, poll says

Joseph Guzman | June 24, 2022
·4 min read

Story at a glance

  • The Supreme Court on Friday upended the constitutional right to abortion established nearly 50 years ago in Roe v. Wade.

  • The high court’s contentious reversal of Roe came just one day after it struck down a New York state law that set a high bar for who can conceal carry weapons.

  • The two issues could be key in how the nation’s second-largest voting bloc, Latinos, vote in upcoming elections.


A recent poll shows Latino voters in battleground states strongly support gun reform measures and access to abortion as the Supreme Court issued critical decisions this week loosening gun restrictions and striking down the landmark abortion case Roe v. Wade.

The Supreme Court on Friday upended the constitutional right to abortion established nearly 50 years ago in Roe v. Wade, handing states the authority to limit or ban the controversial procedure. The ruling was anticipated following the leak of a draft copy of the opinion in May. The decision will result in 13 states with “trigger bans” to ban abortion within 30 days following Friday’s decision, while others are poised to move ahead with antiabortion legislation.

The high court’s contentious reversal of Roe came just one day after it struck down a New York state law that set a high bar for who can conceal carry weapons, a ruling that will make it easier for people to carry concealed pistols in public in a handful of blue states with similar laws on the books. The ruling came hours before the Senate passed a gun safety bill for the first time in decades that strengthened background checks for those younger than 21, provided billions of dollars in funds for mental health treatment and helped states administer red flag laws. The push for gun legislation was prompted by a series of mass shootings, including the Uvalde, Texas school shooting that left 19 students and two teachers dead.

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The two issues could be key in how the nation’s second-largest voting bloc, Latinos, vote in upcoming elections, according to Voto Latino, an advocacy group working to get young Hispanic and Latino voters across the country to the polls.

A survey of Latino voters in Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Texas released by the group just before the Supreme Court handed down its rulings found 64 percent of Latinos are “more motivated to vote” in the upcoming November midterm elections as a result of the Supreme Court’s decision on Roe, with 52 percent saying they are “much more motivated.”

The poll found 68 percent of Latinos believe abortion should be legal in all or most cases, with just 10 percent saying they think abortion should be banned. Sixty five percent of respondents said they would support a law to protect abortion access nationally.

“The Supreme Court’s ruling today means choice is unambiguously on the ballot when we go to the polls in November,” Voto Latino President and CEO Maria Teresa Kumar said Friday.

“This ruling endangers the rights of tens of millions of people, but we know that the burden will fall heaviest on individuals who are already marginalized, like people of color and poor people, while the most affluent among us will still have a better chance of getting the care they need.”

On the gun issue, most Latinos said they are concerned about increasing gun violence and believe current gun laws aren’t doing enough to curb mass shootings. The survey found 86 percent said mass shootings are a crisis or a major issue and 69 percent were worried for their own personal safety. At least six in ten respondents said their state gun laws are not restrictive enough.

Nearly 80 percent said they believed common sense gun laws can pass while keeping the Second Amendment intact for responsible gun owners. Meanwhile, 82 percent said they’re in favor of background checks on all gun purchases while 9 percent said they somewhat support the measure, including 80 percent of Republicans. At least 78 percent said they also support red flag laws.

The survey included more than 1,000 respondents with a margin of error of 3 percent.

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