Latino voters say cost of living tops 2026 midterm concerns

A new UnidosUS survey suggests the biggest divide heading into the 2026 midterms is not ideology but daily expenses. Only 15% of the 3,000 registered Latino voters polled said they live comfortably, while 53% named the cost of living and inflation as their leading concern.

The findings from the Unidos Bipartisan Poll of Hispanic Voters: The Road to 2026 show pocketbook pressure outranking immigration by a wide margin. Jobs and the economy ranked second at 36%, followed by housing at 32% and health care at 30%. Immigration reform came in fifth at 20%, a sign that affordability, not immigration, is setting the terms of the debate for many Latino voters.

That stress fits with a broader pattern in UnidosUS polling. In earlier surveys, 54% of Latino respondents said the economy was worse than a year earlier. In an April 28, 2025 release, UnidosUS said 60% of Hispanic voters believed the country was headed in the wrong direction and 70% blamed President Trump and his administration for that course. The latest poll suggests those doubts have not faded as the 2026 election cycle approaches.

The political implications are clear: Latino voters are responding less to broad economic talking points than to the prices they confront every day. Clarissa Martínez De Castro, vice president of the Latino Vote Initiative at UnidosUS, discussed the findings on CBS News, where the group emphasized that cost of living and inflation, immigration arrests and deportations in U.S. cities, and jobs and the economy are the top issues shaping voter views about the president. For both parties, the data points to a familiar but stubborn reality: when only a small share of voters say they are living comfortably, claims about economic progress carry less weight than rent, groceries, wages and the price of keeping a household afloat.