The economy, the cost of health care, immigration, and reproductive rights are the policy issues most important to Colorado Latinos, according to a new Voces Unidas/COLOR Colorado poll conducted by BSP Research. This is the 4th edition of this poll that focuses on the policy preferences and priorities of the Latino community across the state.
The results from the 1,600-respondent survey conducted in July and August of this year highlight the economy as their top concern.
As the figure below shows, among federal policy priorities economic issues are by the greatest concern of Colorado’s Latino community. Similar to the 2023 survey results, the rising cost of living ranked first, with 42% of CO Latinos mentioning it. At 35%, improving wages and income was their second most important issue. Continuing the pattern, worries about health care and housing costs ranked third and fourth, at 22% and 18% respectively. Addressing gun violence was the only non-economic issue among the top five concerns, cited by 17% of state Latinos. (Because respondents could list more than one issue, totals across the 21 issues listed in the figure sum to more than 100%.)
When cued to consider the concerns that are most important for their governor and the state legislature to address, Colorado’s Latinos also rate so-called kitchen table issues as top priorities. Nearly half (47%) cited the cost of living and more than a third (37%) mentioned improving wages and incomes as important concerns. Their third-rate priority, at 23%, was lower the cost of healthcare. Healthcare is particularly important among middle-class Latinos, as well as those age 50+ (28%). The parallels between the federal and state priorities reaffirm how much economic worries dominate the policy mindset of the state’s Latino community.
Given how dominant economic issues are in the policy priorities of Latinos, the 2024 survey specifically asked respondents to compare their economic situation this year with last year. As the pie chart below indicates, when asked about their personal finances, 35% of Latinos said their personal financial situation had improved. But a nearly identical share, 34%, said their financial situation worsened. These numbers are nearly identical to last year’s survey, suggesting that the financial picture for Latinos in Colorado has held constant in the past year.
To best understand Latino perspectives across the state, the Voces Unidas/COLOR Colorado poll tracked respondents by their congressional district. The district-specific differences reflect familiar splits among respondents who live in rural, suburban, and urban parts of the state. The results show that 37% of respondents from urban areas say their situation has gotten worse over the last twelve months, compared to 28% of rural respondents.
Immigration and reproductive rights are also important issues to Colorado’s Latino community[AL1] .
On immigration, roughly one in three Latinos combined identified either protecting immigrant or immigration reform immigration as a top issue. In general, Latinos are highly supportive of humane and common-sense immigration policies, one of the most salient and controversial issues of the 2024 presidential cycle.
Only 20% of Colorado Latino registered voters support separating families at the U.S.-Mexico border, and a robust 61% majority strongly opposing this controversial approach. A slightly smaller majority, 54%, also oppose building a 2,000-mile wall across the border. Unsurprisingly, opinions vary based on partisanship: 72% of Latino Republicans support the border wall policy, whereas on 27% of Democrats do.
As the bar char below indicates, Colorado’s Latinos strongly support asylum and family reunification approaches when evaluating which immigrants to grant visas. Specifically, 75% of Latinos support increasing legal immigration through family and employment-based visas, and 68% support providing asylum to immigrants fleeing violence or war in their home countries. However, among all Latinos there is strong support (68%) for immediately deporting undocumented immigrants who have criminal records.
In the wake of the Supreme Court’s landmark 2022 Dobbs decision, abortion has taken on heightened significant in the 2024 election cycle. We asked Colorado’s Latinas some questions about reproductive rights, access and affordability—and specifically what barriers or obstacles might prevent them from having access to an abortion, if needed.
As reflected in the figure above, the factor most often identified, at 45%, was having the funds to pay for the procedure (45%), followed next by not having any emotional support (27%) and not having trust/confidence in a medical provider (25%). Among uninsured Latinas, only 41% said they would know where to get services or financial support for an abortion. Respondents were also asked about a ballot measure that would constitutionalize the right to get an abortion in the Colorado by prohibiting the state and local government from exercising that right. A 61% majority of Latino registered voters support that measure.
*Methodology: The poll, led by Dr. Gabriel Sanchez and Dr. Matt Barreto from BSP Research and fielded between July 5, 2024, and August 5, 2024, was implemented through a blended approach including web-based (n=1,016) and telephone interviews (n=584) that include both landlines and cell phones. The survey was fielded in English or Spanish , depending on respondents’ preference, with a total of 339 surveys conducted in Spanish. Data was compared to the best-known estimates of the U.S. Census Current Population Survey (CPS) for demographic profile of Colorado adults and post-stratification weights were applied to bring the data into direct balance with Census estimates.