Harris has to recapture the young Latino voters Biden was losing

SAN ANTONIO — Rebecca Contreras was planning to vote again for President Joe Biden, but the 30-year-old Texan was uncertain he could win. Now with Vice President Kamala Harris as the de facto nominee, she said her confidence has crept back.

“Maybe there’s some hope again, and our votes can matter,” the San Antonio social media marketing specialist, who considers herself progressive, said Monday.

Long seen as reliable Democratic voters, the support of younger Latinos like Contreras was less of a sure bet for Democrats this year than in previous election cycles.

Democrats saw then-President Donald Trump and the Republican Party carve out a larger share of the Hispanic vote in 2020. This year, polls showed a continued decline for Biden, with the two presidential candidates essentially tied among Latinos; the party has also feared losing more Latino supporters to third-party candidates or to voters staying home altogether.

Latinos are younger than Americans overall, and hundreds of thousands of Latino citizens turn 18 and are eligible to vote each year. A May survey of over 2,000 voters under 40, including Latinos, found only one-third would vote for Biden. Among Latinos, 32% said they would support Trump, 28% chose Biden and another 28% said they would support "someone else," the University of Chicago GenForward survey found.

Young Latino college studentsin Arizona, Georgia and Pennsylvania told NBC News in April that while most supported progressive policies that aligned with the Democratic agenda, few expressed support for Biden or Trump.

One of every 5 Hispanics will be voting in their first presidential election this year, according to UnidosUS, a national Latino advocacy group. Of those new Latino voters, more than