Why are Mexican Voters overwhelmingly Democratic?

[Cyrusman]

Why is it that almost all Mexican voters vote democratic? This is also been a trend way before Trump so no Trump is not the reason. Mexican voters have always been overwhelmingly democratic. The reason I’m asking is because many of them that I’ve met are very socially conservative. They are VERY against abortion. Some are even against same sex marriage. I understand that’s not all that matters but still why is it that they are overwhelmingly democratic?

[SATW]

I'm not an expert on this, but I have heard the following from friends of mine who are Mexican-American and/or are involved in progressive Latino circles:

1. The 21st Century GOP (and even the GOP of the 1990s, in the 20th century) have been increasingly aggressive in their rhetoric on immigration. George W. Bush might have been moderate on the issue, but the GOP had assclowns like Tom Tancredo running around at the same time. This isolated and petrified Mexican-Americans who likely know someone who came in as an undocumented or illegal immigrant. Add in Donald Trump and this only further made this group of voters extremely unlikely to vote Republican.

2. Mexican-Americans are NOT Cuban-Americans, Colombian-Americans or Venezuelan-Americans. The latter three groups came into America escaping extreme leftist governments (or leftist terror groups in Colombia's case via FARC). Mexican-Americans were leaving Mexico for different reasons. Mexico did have a historically authoritarian government, but it was not a Castro's Cuba or a Maduro's Venezuela. So this changes the ideological calculus. So while many did want to escape bad political and human rights situations, they did not have a historic hatred for communism, socialism etc... And in addition to this, many Cuban-American and Venezuelan-American citizens are middle-class to upper middle-class depending on the wave of immigration. Mexican immigrants, on the other hand, tend to be MUCH less wealthy and thus are attracted to more left-leaning economic platforms.

3. Mexican-American voters tend to align with other U.S. minority populations. Especially African-American voters. And they often align with each other through intersectionality politics. The younger Mexican-American voters also align with LGBTQ+ and Muslim-American voters. People's experiences are not just shaped by their own histories but also the experiences and histories of their friends and allies. Compare this to Former USSR immigrants and Cuban immigrants who often align with anti-communist and hawkish FoPo coalition voters and you get much different voter trends.

[SATW]

Also, in response to the social conservatism of Mexican-American voters:

1. Yes, they are socially moderate to conservative in many cases, but not all. And among younger Mexican-Americans there is a clear shift to the left on social issues. Racial Justice issues and LGBTQ+ issues are two examples of a shift on social issues.

2. Similar to white working class voters of the 20th century I'd argue that social issues are not a top priority for most Mexican-American voters. Union voters, in many cases, are religious and socially moderate-to-conservative, but because of economic issues they used to vote straight democrat across the board.

[ag]

To the best of my knowledge, at the last election most Mexican voters voted for MORENA - arguably, not a very democratic party. Though in my precinct most of us voted PAN.

If your question is about Mexican-American voters, they only have a choice of the Democratic Party and the Grand Anglo White Party, as no other major parties exist in the United States. Since GAWP deliberately excludes them, they do not have many options left.

[completely dead account]

Immigration policies of the GOP. A lot of Mexicans are rather socially conservative but vote Dem because of the more economic policies that negatively affect them from the GOP.

[darklordoftech]

A Democratic-controlled Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Immigration Act of 1965, and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and Lyndon signed all three. They probably also benefitted from Medicaid, well-funded schools, school bussing, etc.

[The Free North]

They're immigrants. Immigrant populations in the US have been voting overwhelmingly democrat for 100+ years.

[All Along The Watchtower]

I didn't realize Mexicans could vote in US elections.

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

They're immigrants. Immigrant populations in the US have been voting overwhelmingly democrat for 100+ years.

Immigrants have probably leaned Democratic ever since the D party was founded.

[RINO Tom]

A Democratic-controlled Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Immigration Act of 1965, and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and Lyndon signed all three. They probably also benefitted from Medicaid, well-funded schools, school bussing, etc.

I'm willing to bet that Mexican Americans who could vote were voting Democratic long before any of that.

[Adam Griffin]

Despite all the ways in which the two major parties of the US have shifted, by and large, the Democratic Party has been the party of both urban areas and of immigrants for a long, long time. That alone would be enough to explain much of their allegiance, but I think you can also look at the economic preferences of most Mexicans historically (while certainly a gross over-simplification, Latin America has tended to skew to the left of the US along economic lines) and the behavior of the GOP in the modern era as other factors.

[SATW]

They're immigrants. Immigrant populations in the US have been voting overwhelmingly democrat for 100+ years.

Former Soviet Union Immigrants and Cuban Immigrants beg to differ. Stop simplifying topics that shouldn't be simplified.

EDIT: FTR - I obviously know that Immigrants have always leaned Dem, heavily so in many cases, but the point of a discussion is to dissect specific reasons not just wave a hand over a topic and move on.