Seven-in-10 Colorado Latino voters believe country is headed in wrong direction

The Colorado Latino Agenda (Voces Unidas and COLOR) and UnidosUS today released findings on where Latino voters stand one year ahead of the 2026 mid-term elections. Among Colorado latinos, there is continued economic anxiety and rising concern around immigration and law enforcement actions taking place across the country. Notably, 72% of respondents believe the nation is headed in the wrong direction.  

The survey is part of the national “Bipartisan Poll of Hispanic Voters: The Road to 2026,” the nation’s largest bipartisan poll of Latinos, released earlier this week. Colorado Latinos comprised 400 of the 3,000 registered Latino voters in that survey, providing a nuanced local look at the priority issues for the state’s Latino voters and their sentiments on current leadership in Washington, DC. The survey found that 67% of Latino voters in Colorado disapprove of President Trump’s job performance and that 81% are concerned Congress is not fulfilling its checks-and-balances role and is ceding too much of its constitutional authority to President Trump and the executive branch.

“One year out from the mid-term elections, the data reflects what many of us already know: Latino voters are engaged and paying attention to who’s delivering real results on the issues that matter most — the cost of living, wages, housing, and health care,” said Alex Sánchez, President and CEO of Glenwood Springs-based Voces Unidas de las Montañas. “Here in Colorado, Latino voters are sending a clear message: they’re frustrated by dysfunction in Washington and blame President Trump and Congressional Republicans for focusing on politics instead of people — and the clock is ticking.”

Two-thirds (66%) of Latino voters in Colorado disapprove of how the Republican Party is leading Congress, and a comparable 61% hold the President and Republicans responsible for the recent federal government shutdown, while 23% blame Democrats. If the 2026 midterm elections were held today, 55% of Latino voters in Colorado say they would vote for the Democratic House candidate, 21% for the Republican, with 74% saying they are certain or likely to vote. This signals both parties have work to do to win over more of these voters.

Regarding President Trump, Colorado Latinos placed his favorability rating at -41 points (69% unfavorable vs. 28% favorable), even lower than the -32-point favorability rating of the broader national sample. Colorado respondents said the issues most shaping their negative views of President Trump include immigration arrests and deportations (46%), cuts to Medicaid and food assistance programs (39%), the cost of living and inflation (35%), jobs and the economy (28%), and policies tied to the Big Beautiful Budget Bill (28%). 

“Colorado Latinos have soured on a Trump administration that has not addressed their core concerns, including the unsustainable cost of living increases that have impacted Latinos nationwide,” said Dr. Gary Segura, Principal and Co-owner of pollster BSP Research. “Troops in cities – which they oppose – and a shutdown they blame on the president by almost 40 points have not distracted them from the struggle to make ends meet in this economy.”

Polling data highlights the top issues Latino voters want elected officials to prioritize, overwhelmingly dominated by the pocketbook issues that shape their views on Trump. While 45% of Colorado Latinos say their economic situation has gotten worse over the past year (compared to 11% who say their situation has improved), more than two-thirds (69%) say that Trump and Republicans in Congress are not focusing enough on improving the economy for people like them.

“Even beyond the message Latina and Latino voters are sending Republicans about the economy and the cost of health care, it’s notable that this poll was conducted before enrollment opened for the Affordable Care Act this fall, when we learned that prices for health insurance will more than double for many Latinos next year,” said Dusti Gurule, President and CEO of Colorado Organization for Latina Opportunity and Reproductive Rights (COLOR). “This president campaigned on a promise to stop inflation, yet he and his enablers in Congress appear to be on a mission to disable the economy for the everyday Coloradan represented in this poll.”

Adding to the economic strife, 62% of Colorado Latinos polled said their civil rights and liberties have become less secure in Trump’s second term as President. Among Colorado Latinos, 71% oppose the recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling allowing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to use appearance, languages, and work/labor as grounds to arrest someone on suspicion of immigration violations, and 40% say people in their community fear that immigration authorities will arrest them even if they’re U.S. citizens or have legal status.

The poll also found that:

• A majority do not support the way in which federal military/national guard deployments are occurring, including 33% who believe such deployments should not happen at all.

• 48% are very concerned that they or someone close to them may become a victim of political violence, with 44% believing that recent increase in political violence is mostly due to Republican talk, as opposed to 18% holding Democrats responsible. 

“Hispanic voters feel their economic situation is worsening, and now feel that their own government is putting their civil rights and personal safety at risk,” said UnidosUS Vice President of the Latino Vote Initiative Clarissa Martinez De Castro. “To Congress and the administration, Hispanic voters’ message is clear: lower costs, raise wages. And to Congress, unequivocally: do your constitutional job. In Colorado and across the nation, eight-in-10 Hispanic voters are concerned that Congress is not doing its checks and balances job and giving up too much unchecked power to the Presidency.”

Other key findings from Colorado include:   

On Issues and Economic Landscape 

• Four of the top five priorities for Latino voters are driven by pocketbook issues: 

• #1 Cost of living/inflation (48%) — Cost of food and basic living expenses, housing affordability, gas prices and electricity bills. 

• #2 Housing costs and affordability (35%) — Rising cost of rent and cost of electricity, utilities, taxes, home insurance, home maintenance/repairs and lack of affordable housing. 

• #3 Jobs and economy (34%) — Wages, job security, prices and job creation. 

• #4 Health care (30%) — Rising health care costs, monthly premiums, co-pays and deductibles. 

• #5 Gun violence (21%) — Colorado Latino voters’ concerns about gun violence in the state overshadowed immigration reform, which ranked 5^th in the national poll (20%). Immigration (18%) was the #6 priority in Colorado. 

• Looking ahead to next year, 54% believe the Trump Administration’s economic policies will make them worse off.

On the Political Landscape and Environment 

• Views on parties: 51% say the Democratic Party cares a great deal about Colorado’s Latino community while 27% say the same of the Republican Party. In contrast, 33% say the Republican Party is hostile towards the Latino community, compared with 6% of respondents saying the Democratic Party is. 

• Which party is better on specific issues:Latino voters in Colorado say they trust Democrats more to handle nearly every issue polled, including health care (59%), gun policy (46%), climate change (43%), voting rights (45%), election integrity (48%), housing costs (43%), jobs and employment (52%), immigration reform (43%) and inflation and affordability (45%). Democrats tied with Republicans on managing border security (39%). 

• Military deployments: 35% believe federal military deployments should only happen if state or local leaders request them. 33% say federal military deployments should not happen at all and only 20% say the federal government should be able to send military forces even if local governments do not want them. 

On Immigration 

• On recent immigration policies and actions, 35% said employers have lost workers because people fear being arrested if they go to work, and 25% say children are missing classes because their parents fear being arrested while taking their kids to school. 

• Top immigration policy priorities include a path to citizenship for law-abiding and long-residing undocumented individuals, including those who were brought to the country as children (44%); ensuring detention facilities are safe, sanitary and humane once immigrants are detained (37%); ensuring people in deportation proceedings have a chance to make their case in court (34%); and cracking down on human smugglers and drug traffickers (30%). 

Visit www.coloradolatinoagenda.org to download the data,. Click HERE to watch a replay of the Colorado webinar and HERE to watch a replay of the national results webinar.  For interactive Latino poll results, see Hispanic Electorate Data Hub.