Obama Administration Holds 70% Approval Rating Among Hispanics

The Obama administration has a 70 percent rate of approval among Hispanics. The poll was taken in January, just after President Barack Obama began his second administration----according to a recent Gallup poll. 

The approval rating is down 5 percent from December, but it still does not veer far from the estimated 70 percent of Hispanic voters who voted for Obama in the November 2012 election.

Since the Democratic National Convention in August, Obama's approval rating has gone up by a whopping 12 points, according to Gallup, among the Hispanic demographic. At the Democratic Convention, prominent democrats like Bill Clinton and Vice President Joe Biden spoke about immigration reform in stark contrast to what was seen as Republican evasion of the issue during their own convention that month. And in an earlier Gallup poll, Hispanic perception of Mitt Romney's commitment to immigration reform was seen as underwhelming.

Obama took the oath of office on Jan. 21 and soon after expressed his administration's resolve toward having a comprehensive immigration bill passed by the end of the year as one of his office's top priorities.

The Immigration bill was backed by an important bipartisan group of senators, led by Latino leaders Marco Rubio (R-FL), Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Bob Menendez (D-NJ), has made its way through the Judiciary Committee and is expected to go on to the Senate floor in the coming days. Obama expressed his full support for the bill last week during a speech in Las Vegas. 

In the speech, Obama expressed the need for full recognition of the contributions immigrants have brought to this country. The immigration bill includes a key provision that would allow 11 million currently undocumented workers to have a secure pathway toward citizenship.

Most commentators are hopeful that immigration reform will happen despite the recent scandals that have rocked the White House and threaten to undermine public focus on the bipartisan immigration effort.

Gallup polled 1,288 Hispanics regarding the president's popularity, which is well above the national average that currently stands at 52 percent---a number that has remained largely the same in the last few months. This steady approval rating has been attributed to the economy's good performance overall during the last few months.

Hispanics make up the largest minority in the country right now with an estimated 52 million people, or 17 percent, of the country's total population.

(Source)