SAN DIEGO — As election day nears, campaigns are ramping up efforts to secure more votes.
Latino voters remain a big focus.
But the author of a new book called ‘Defectors: The Rise of the Latino Far Right and What It Means For America’ says more Latinos are supporting the Republican party than ever before.
"Republicans have historically gotten around 30% of the Latino vote. The idea was that someone like Donald Trump would never even get close to 30 or 40% and here we are right a couple of weeks before the election, and Donald Trump is polling anywhere between 35% to 40% with Latino voters," said author Paola Ramos.
As a journalist, Ramos has covered elections, interviewing countless voters and candidates.
Then, in 2016, she had the idea to write a book about what she's learned, following Donald Trump's defeat over Hillary Clinton.
"Because so much of sort of the theory of change of that campaign was this idea that, you know, Latinos would ensure that Hillary Clinton would defeat Donald Trump. And so in that moment, I start to think about this idea of like, what are these stereotypes that we're getting wrong," said Ramos.
"Defectors: The Rise of the Latino Far Right and What It Means For America" was released last month.
It's a follow-up to another book Ramos wrote about Latino voters in 2020.
She says it's not a black-and-white issue, explaining there are a lot of reasons why Latinos are leaning right.
"I think a lot of it has to do with the way that a lot of Latinos are warming up to, for instance, mass deportations and the wall. There's another significant portion of Latinos that are really holding traditional values, and they see these values being threatened. And then I think there's an element of the political trauma, know, something that maybe resonates a lot in a place like Miami, you know, the fear of communism taking over," said Ramos.
Linda Lopez-Alvarez has been voting Republican her whole life. She is with a group called Escondido Republican Women.
Lopez-Alvarez has served as a delegate at the Republican National Convention a number of times and has met former President Trump. She says Ramos's findings don't surprise her at all.
"We're Republicans because we are conservative, you know, we put our families first, and that's the most important thing that we do. And the Republican values are all there, right behind the Latinos," said Lopez-Alvarez.
Lopez-Alvarez said that Latinos work hard, yet aren't seeing their lives improve with Democrats in charge.
As for Trump's anti-immigration rhetoric and border policies, she says some of that is taken out of context, the latter, she agrees with.
"Of course, we want everybody to have the American dream. That's what this country was based on. But, we have to do things right."
Still, recent polls show the Harris campaign is leading among Latino voters.
Coincidentally, Latino leaders recently slammed both parties for their lack of outreach, sending letters urging them to engage the Latino electorate, something we'll likely see more of with the election just three weeks away.