Latinos Sour on Trump and GOP as Democrats Sweep Key Elections from Virginia to New Jersey, New York and Cincinnati

Democrats celebrated a clean sweep in Tuesday's elections across Virginia, New Jersey, New York City and Cincinnati, powered by a dramatic shift among Latino voters who have turned sharply against Donald Trump's economic results and his immigration and deportation agenda.

Early AP VoteCast exit polling cited by The Atlantic's Ronald Brownstein shows Hispanic support for Republican candidates collapsing to about one-third in states that Trump carried nearly two-fifths of just a year ago, a sign that the political pendulum among Latinos is swinging back toward the Democrats.

Virginia and New Jersey: Latino Backlash Takes Hold

In Virginia, Democrat Abigail Spanberger defeated Republican Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears, while in New Jersey, Mikie Sherrill secured a second term as governor. Both victories came with notable margins among Hispanic voters.

According to the AP VoteCast data shared by Brownstein, each Democrat held her GOP opponent to roughly one-third of the Hispanic vote, compared with the two-fifths or more Trump won in both states during the 2024 presidential race. Even more striking, about three-fifths of Hispanic voters in New Jersey and three-quarters in Virginia said Trump has gone too far with deportations, highlighting a deep disapproval of his enforcement policies.

The numbers suggest that the administration's recent mass-deportation initiatives and rhetoric about "removal quotas" are eroding what had been a rare area of growth for the GOP in 2024. Latino voters in both states cited fears of family separation, economic disruption, and anti-immigrant sentiment as motivating factors for their Democratic votes.

In New Jersey, 64% and 81% of the Hispanic and Black vote (respectively) went for the Democratic gubernatorial candidate.

According to the first numbers from exit polls, majority of Hispanics say that Trump "has gone too far on deportations".

Mamdani's Historic Win in New York City

In New York City, Zohran Mamdani made history with his election as mayor, overcoming months of attacks from Trump and Republican allies who questioned his citizenship and loyalty.

The White House's denaturalization talk and deportation threats against Mamdani backfired, mobilizing immigrant and Latino communities across the city. His victory underscores the national trend of backlash against anti-immigrant rhetoric, and illustrates how enforcement politics are energizing rather than intimidating Latino voters.

Cincinnati: A Blow to the Trump-Vance Brand

Further west, in Cincinnati, Democrats won another symbolic battle. Incumbent Aftab Pureval handily defeated Republican challenger Cory Bowman, the half-brother of Vice President J.D. Vance and a vocal supporter of Trump's immigration policies.

Pureval's landslide, with about 79 percent of the vote, continued the city's decades-long rejection of Republican mayors and delivered a stinging rebuke to the Trump-Vance political network. Bowman's campaign had leaned heavily on national talking points about border enforcement, but voters in the diverse, immigrant-heavy city rejected them decisively.

A Political Map in Flux

Taken together, the results reveal a rapid re-alignment. Trump's deportation agenda, once seen as an electoral asset in parts of the working-class Latino electorate, has become a liability. Hispanic voters who praised his economic message in 2024 are now recoiling from what many see as inhumane enforcement policies.

Polling from Unidos US and Equis Research this fall echoed the trend: roughly 63 percent of Latino voters disapprove of Trump's job performance, and two-thirds say his immigration policies "go too far." Democrats, by contrast, are gaining renewed credibility on inclusion, economic stability, and family unity, themes that resonate deeply across Latino households.

For Democrats, the sweep re-establishes momentum heading into 2026. For the GOP, it is a warning that hardline immigration tactics may fracture one of the fastest-growing voter blocs in America. The results also suggest that Latino turnout can surge when communities feel directly targeted, not just in border states, but across the Northeast and Midwest.

While official counts and certified exit-poll data will refine the margins, the early message is unmistakable: Latinos are souring on Trump and the GOP, and their votes just redrew the political map.