Voters of color helped give Democrats sweeping majorities in the midterm elections, largely driven by dissatisfaction with the cost of living and immigration enforcement under the Trump administration.
But a new national poll suggests that rather than unconditionally endorsing the Democratic Party, these voters expect concrete improvements on these issues, and the party remains vulnerable if its new congressional majorities fail to deliver.
Compared with the 2024 presidential vote, “every group of voters of color shifted toward Democrats in House races by significant margins: Latino voters by 14 points, AAPI voters by 9, Black voters by 8, and Native American voters by 6, compared with 4 points among White voters,” finds the 2026 Midterm Election Voter Poll — a survey of more than 10,000 voters conducted between Oct. 19 and Election Day, Nov. 3, with large samples of Black, Latino, Native American and Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander voters.
Every group named affordability as its top reason for the shift.
Supermajorities of each group also opposed the administration’s immigration crackdown, civil rights leaders and researchers said at a Nov. 6 American Community Media briefing about the poll. BSP Research conducted the survey with 14 partners including the National Immigration Law Center, UnidosUS, the African American Research Collaborative, Asian Americans Advancing Justice | AAJC and First Nations Development Institute.
Immigration policy took on particular urgency the day of the briefing, when President Donald Trump announced that deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, the architect of the administration’s immigration policy, would replace Susie Wiles as White House chief of staff starting Nov. 9.
The appointment signaled that the White House intends to double down on its immigration enforcement, even as the new Democratic majorities consider rescinding the more than $200 billion that congressional Republicans have steered to immigration enforcement since July 2025.
‘A once-in-a-generation opportunity’
Kica Matos, President, National Immigration Law Center, shares her thoughts on Trump’s appointment of Stephen Miller as White House Chief of Staff.
Most poll respondents support redirecting that money, said Kica Matos, president of the National Immigration Law Center: “They want that money to be clawed back and given instead to programs that benefit people and communities, including SNAP and Medicaid.”
This support is highest among Black voters (78%), followed by Latino (68%), AAPI (66%) and Native American voters (64%). Most white voters (59%) also support it.
“Folks have delivered an epic smackdown of the Trump administration’s handling of immigration, and chart a clear path forward for how Congress needs to move on this issue,” said Matos.
But with Miller now chief of staff, she continued, “Congress will really need to step it up because my own opinion is that they have been asleep at the wheel in the last two years when it comes to immigration, and now things are about to get worse.”
“We have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to make real change,” Matos added. “Our new congressional majorities must not waste it, and we intend to hold their feet to the fire.”
Across groups, 89% of respondents — including more than nine in 10 Black and Latino voters — agreed that “we need a balanced and orderly immigration system that has an earned path to citizenship for long-term residents; focuses enforcement inside the country on keeping communities safe, with clear accountability; offers legal ways to immigrate that help our economy and families; and keeps the border secure,” per the poll.
‘A resounding rebuke’
Clarissa Martínez De Castro, Vice President, Latino Vote Initiative, UnidosUS, discusses what Democrats need to do with their new-found majority in order to stay in power.
Latino voters particularly “delivered a resounding rebuke of current economic and immigration policies, and that rebuke led to unprecedented Democratic wins,” said Clarissa Martínez De Castro, vice president of the Latino Vote Initiative at UnidosUS.
But she rejected the idea that Democrats won Latinos back for good.
Roughly 38% of Latino voters entered the election as “part of a movable middle, independents, undecideds — people who, in 2024, crossed party lines, and/or voted for a third party,” Martínez De Castro said. “That should put both parties on notice.”
Retaining their support, she added, “will hinge on delivering solutions to the issues that are squeezing working families beyond the breaking point and stopping the abuse that many of our communities are experiencing.”
Only 15% of Latino respondents described themselves as financially comfortable, and 80% were working class.
‘What checked this administration was the voters’
Henry Fernandez, Chief Executive Officer, African American Research Collaborative, says that the recent elections Black candidates in states that have long resisted Black leadership must be credited, in part, to previous Black candidates whose campaigns and efforts to court voters set the groundwork for Black electoral success.
“People of color were the backbone of the massive Democratic success,” said Henry Fernandez, CEO of the African American Research Collaborative.
Black voters backed Democratic House candidates by the widest margin of any group in the poll, 85% to 13%. Latino voters backed Democrats 67% to 31%, AAPI voters 64% to 33% and Native American voters 57% to 41%, while White voters shifted toward Democrats compared to 2024 but stayed Republican, 53% to 44%.
“After a 2024 cycle with a lot of talk about erosion of the support of Democrats by Black voters, Black voters delivered the Democratic Party’s strongest numbers once again in 2026,” said Fernandez.
Among all 2024 Trump voters, 9% backed Democrats for the House this year, but among Black Trump voters, that number was 35%.
All five of Black voters’ top concerns were affordability-related: cost of living and inflation (60%), jobs and the economy (37%), affordable housing (35%), health care costs (32%) and gas prices (31%).
“These are folks’ everyday bills, and that’s where Black voters are certainly feeling the squeeze,” said Fernandez. “Many of us had hoped Congress would step up, or that the courts, which have done some important work, would really check this administration. What checked this administration was the voters.”
‘A movable community’
John C. Yang, President and Executive Director of Asian Americans Advancing Justice | AAJC, discusses AAPI views on the Voting Rights Act and what needs to be done to protect the right to vote.
AAPI voters backed Democrats by about 2-to-1 in Senate, House and gubernatorial races.
John C. Yang, president and executive director of Asian Americans Advancing Justice | AAJC, called the swing “a reversion” after a five-point shift toward Trump in 2024, according to the NBC News exit poll.
As with Black voters, AAPI voters’ top five concerns were affordability-related.
“Our community is a movable community when it comes to their view of the different parties,” said Yang.
Nearly two-thirds of AAPI respondents said the country is headed in the wrong direction, while 79% worried that Congress is failing to exercise its constitutional checks and balances, and 80% supported passing “a new voting rights act to ensure that all eligible American citizens can vote without barriers.”
“Oftentimes, people try to use the Asian American community as a wedge, or somehow suggest that we are white-adjacent,” said Yang. “What this survey demonstrates is that we have the same concern around immigration, discrimination, voting, representation that all of the other communities of color do.”
Outreach also made a difference, he added: “Fifty-four percent of the Asian American community heard from someone in the Democratic Party in the course of this election cycle, whereas only 38% heard from Republicans.”
‘The kind of future that people want’
Annalise Guthrie (Cherokee Nation), Senior Research Officer, Research and Advocacy at First Nations Development Institute, discusses the issues Native American voters are facing and how they would like to see them addressed.
Of the poll’s roughly 1,400 Native American respondents, 49% said no party, campaign or organization contacted them about voting.
“Native voters were making these choices, but that doesn’t mean that they’re giving either party their unconditional support,” said Annalise Guthrie, senior research officer at First Nations Development Institute. “Native voters expect to see their priorities reflected in policy, and not just acknowledged during the election season.”
While affordability issues constituted Native voters’ top five concerns, 89% also said a candidate’s position on tribal sovereignty, treaty rights and federal trust responsibilities “are important in deciding who they’re going to support,” she continued.
“We’re talking about whether families can afford to stay in their communities, support their children, care for their elders and actually build financial stability for the future,” added Guthrie. “I really don’t think that this election was just about political preference. I think it was really about the kind of future that people want for their families and their communities.”
SELEN OZTURK
ACoM editor and research director Selen Ozturk was born in Istanbul and raised in the Bay Area. She holds a philosophy degree from UC Berkeley. Her work has been published in the San Francisco Chronicle, SFGATE, Bay City News, PopMatters, and Senses of Cinema, among many other outlets.
