This article was accepted into the corpus but its outbound wikilinks were never NER-processed — typical at the deepest BFS hop or when the run's entity cap was reached. No expansion funnel to show.
| Latino Decisions | |
|---|---|
| Name | Latino Decisions |
| Formation | 2000s |
| Headquarters | United States |
| Type | Opinion research firm |
| Focus | Latino public opinion, Hispanic polling |
Latino Decisions is an American opinion research firm that conducts survey research on Latino and Hispanic public opinion in the United States. The organization has been cited by media outlets, academic institutions, advocacy groups, and political organizations for its work on election polls, public policy attitudes, and demographic trends among Latino, Hispanic, and immigrant communities. Its research intersects with scholars, think tanks, and political actors engaged in Latino politics, civil rights, and electoral strategy.
Latino Decisions was founded in the 2000s amid rising scholarly and political interest in Latino and Hispanic voting behavior, demographic change in Texas, California, and Florida, and debates after the 2000 United States presidential election. Early work engaged with scholars from University of California, Berkeley, University of Michigan, and University of Texas at Austin and organizations such as the National Council of La Raza (now National Hispanic Media Coalition), Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, and League of United Latin American Citizens. The firm expanded its profile through collaborations with advocacy groups including Voto Latino, National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials, and research centers like the Pew Research Center, Brookings Institution, and Migration Policy Institute. Latino Decisions produced notable surveys around the 2008 United States presidential election, 2012 United States presidential election, 2016 United States presidential election, and 2020 United States presidential election, and worked on targeted state-level analyses in Arizona, Nevada, Colorado, and North Carolina.
The organization's leadership has included figures with experience in media, academia, and political advocacy. Leaders and senior analysts have engaged with professors from Columbia University, Harvard University, Princeton University, Georgetown University, and Stanford University and collaborated with political strategists associated with the Democratic National Committee and progressive campaigns. Latino Decisions has partnered with nonpartisan institutions such as the Annenberg Public Policy Center and partisan or advocacy organizations including MoveOn.org, EMILY's List, Working Families Party, and labor groups like the Service Employees International Union. The firm’s staff and affiliated scholars have published findings through outlets including The New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, NPR, and Politico, and appeared on broadcasts from CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, and C-SPAN.
Latino Decisions employs mixed-methods approaches combining telephone interviews, automated dialers, online panels, and bilingual survey instruments to reach Spanish- and English-speaking respondents in Latino, Hispanic, and immigrant communities in Puerto Rico, New York City, and metropolitan regions such as Miami, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Houston. The firm uses stratified sampling frameworks informed by data from the U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey, and voter file vendors like Catalist and L2 Political. Methodological components reference standards from organizations such as the American Association for Public Opinion Research and draw on techniques discussed in the literature from Pew Research Center, Rutgers University, and University of California, Los Angeles. Reports often disaggregate by national-origin groups including Mexican Americans, Puerto Ricans, Cuban Americans, Dominican Americans, and Salvadoran Americans, and cross-tabulate by variables like age cohorts, gender, and nativity.
Latino Decisions released high-profile national and battleground state surveys in election cycles including 2008 United States presidential election, 2012 United States presidential election, 2016 United States presidential election, 2018 United States midterm elections, 2020 United States presidential election, and 2022 United States midterm elections. Notable reports examined Latino attitudes on immigration issues such as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) and reactions to policies under the Obama administration, Trump administration, and Biden administration. Analyses were cited in discussions about turnout in the 2018 Florida gubernatorial election, the 2016 Cuban-American vote, Latino support in the 2020 Georgia Senate special election, and shifts in Latino preferences in states like Arizona and Nevada. Findings have been used by campaigns including those of Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden, and various Senate and gubernatorial candidates to refine outreach to Latino voters.
Latino Decisions has influenced academic research agendas at institutions such as University of Notre Dame, Boston University, and Michigan State University, and contributed data used in monographs and articles in journals like the American Political Science Review and Journal of Politics. Its surveys informed advocacy by groups such as United We Dream, Mi Familia Vota, and Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights and were incorporated into strategy discussions at organizations including Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and state parties. Media citations in outlets like The Atlantic, Mother Jones, The Economist, and Bloomberg amplified its findings, while collaborations with poll aggregators and data projects connected its work to broader election forecasting efforts.
Latino Decisions has faced scrutiny and critique common to polling firms, including debates over sample weighting, turnout modeling, and representativeness of bilingual and nativity-diverse populations. Critics from outlets such as The Wall Street Journal and commentators associated with think tanks like the Heritage Foundation and American Enterprise Institute have questioned methodology and partisan associations. Academic reviewers and polling analysts from Pew Research Center, University of Pennsylvania, and Stanford University have engaged in methodological debates about subgroup sample sizes, mode effects, and comparisons with other firms such as Gallup, Rasmussen Reports, Quinnipiac University Poll, YouGov, Monmouth University Polling Institute, and SSRS. Supporters point to detailed crosstabs and transparency in questionnaires as strengths cited by organizations like LatinoJustice PRLDEF and the Brennan Center for Justice.
Category:Polling organizations in the United States