Former President Donald Trump holds a 25-point lead over Vice President Kamala Harris on immigration, NBC News Senior Political Editor Mark Murray revealed Monday.
Trump and Harries were tied at 48% each in the NBC News poll released Sunday, with the former president leading the sitting vice president on who was more trusted to handle immigration by a 56% to 31% margin. Murray said that Trump bringing up immigration played “right into his strengths” as a candidate.
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“Donald Trump is leaning into the immigration issue because this is his strongest argument. Our poll shows him having a 25-point edge over Harris when it comes to which candidate is better when it comes to immigration and the border discussion,” Murray told “Morning Joe” panelist Katty Kay. “And so Donald Trump is going right into his strengths. When it comes to undecided voters, he is a candidate — and this was true in 2016, it was true in 2020 — he doesn’t really see as somebody who wants to moderate. I’m going to try to win over the independent voters, Nikki Haley voters. He goes directly into his base. And that helped him in 2016, it didn’t help him in 2020, and we’ll see what ends up happening in 2024.”
Murray also noted that Trump’s rhetoric on the issue of immigration was not generating a lot of backlash among Hispanic voters. Trump picked up substantial support among Hispanic voters in polling due to issues like immigration and the economy before President Joe Biden announced he would not seek reelection on July 21.
A Fox News poll of Arizona voters released in September showed Harris only led Hispanic voters by 11 points, a factor in Trump leading by three points in the border state. Trump led Harris on who could handle immigration among Hispanic voters by 25 points in March, according to CNN.
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While Harris has regained some support from Hispanic voters in polling since replacing Biden at the top of the Democratic ticket, she still lags behind Biden’s numbers in the 2020 election.
“When you talk about the immigration issue and Latino voters specifically, you know, our own deep dive into Latino voters shows that Latinos aren’t monolithic, that you end up having conservative Latinos, you end up having liberal Latinos, you have Latinos who live in California, those who live in Florida, and they are very diverse,” Murray added. “But what has happened is that Latino voters are really split when it comes to, do you want to see more enforcement, a crackdown at the border, or do you want to see a more, a path to legalization, a path to citizenship? The DREAM Act. And we — you know, how divided we are as a country ends up showing just how divided the Latino community is and Latino voters are as a whole.”
Border Patrol has encountered over 7 million illegal immigrants since the start of fiscal year 2021, according to figures released by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP).
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First published by the Daily Caller News Foundation.