No Bueno: Poll Says ‘Latinx’ Term Hurts Democrats, 30 Percent of Hispanic Voters Say They’re Less Likely to Vote for a Politician Who Uses It

Sarah RumpfDec 6th, 2021, 5:49 pm
 
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Using the term “Latinx” isn’t just ineffective, but is actively offending a significant portion of Hispanic voters, a poll by a Democratic firm has found, with only 2 percent of respondents saying they use the word to identify themselves and 30 percent saying they would be less likely to support a politician or political organization that used it.

When asked which of the following terms they use to describe their own ethnic background, 68 percent said Hispanic, 21 percent said Latina/Latino, 8 percent said another answer, 2 percent said Latinx, and 1 percent did not answer.

The poll of 800 “registered voters of Hispanic/Latina(o) origin residing in the United States” was conducted by Bendixen & Amandi International from Nov. 17 to 21. The margin of error is +/- 3.46 percent.

The controversy arises, as Politico’s Marc Caputo and Sabrina Rodriguez noted, from how the Spanish language assigns masculine or feminine gender to nouns and a clash with progressive efforts to address people in a gender-neutral way. The plural word “Latinos” uses the masculine form, but no word in Spanish ends with an “X” like Latinx, and numerous native speakers have argued it’s confusing and inartful to attempt to pronounce.

Amandi’s group isn’t the first to find a very low adoption rate for “Latinx” among Hispanics. Last year, a Pew Research poll said only 23 percent of Hispanics had even heard of the term and only 3 percent used it. Gallup got similar results this summer, with only 4 percent of Hispanics saying they preferred the term.

The real problem for Democratic political candidates and organizations, however, isn’t just in the low adoption rate for the term, but in the number of voters who were offended by the term.

“Does the use of the term LatinX to describe the Hispanic or Latina(o) community bother or offend you?” the poll asked, with 40 percent saying yes, 57 percent saying no, and 3 percent don’t know/no answer. Out of the “yes” answers, 20 percent said it bothered them a lot, 11 percent said it bothered them somewhat, and 9 percent said a little.

Another critical result: 30 percent said they were less likely to support a politician or political organization that used the term, 15 percent said more likely to support, 49 percent said it would make no difference, and 6 percent gave no answer.

Like many political issues, there’s a generational divide, with younger people being more likely to say they identified as “Latinx,” but it was still a very small figure, only 4 percent of those aged 18-29 and only 3 percent of the 30-39 cohort. Younger voters are also slightly less likely to be offended by the term’s use, even if they don’t use it themselves.

Those aren’t landslide results to either question, but in a politically divided country where countless local, state, and federal elections are decided by single-digit margins, one single word offending 40 percent of a large population — not to mention the 30 percent who said they’re less likely to vote for someone who uses it — is a warning sign for Democrats. The younger voters who are less hostile to the term are also a small percentage of the overall voting population.

In an interview with Politico about the poll, company principal Fernand Amandi called using Latinx “a violation of the political Hippocratic Oath, which is to first do no electoral harm.”

“Why are we using a word that is preferred by only 2 percent, but offends as many as 40 percent of those voters we want to win?” he asked.

Others have been more blunt. Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) tweeted that he did not allow his office staff to use “Latinx” in official communications. “When Latino politicos use the term it is largely to appease white rich progressives who think that is the term we used,” he wrote. “It is a vicious circle of confirmation bias.”

Besides, he added, “Hispanic” and “Latin American” were already gender-neutral words that worked to describe the Latino community. “Adding an x and creating a new word comes off as performative.”

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Sarah Rumpf - Contributing Editor

Sarah Rumpf joined Mediaite in 2020 and is a Contributing Editor focusing on politics, law, and the media. A native Floridian, Sarah attended the University of Florida, graduating with a double major in Political Science and German, and earned her Juris Doctor, cum laude, from the UF College of Law. Sarah's writing has been featured at National Review, The Daily Beast, Reason, Law&Crime, Independent Journal Review, Texas Monthly, The Capitolist, Breitbart Texas, Townhall, RedState, The Orlando Sentinel, and the Austin-American Statesman, and her political commentary has led to appearances on television, radio, and podcast programs across the globe. Follow Sarah on Threads, Twitter, and Bluesky.