Of Latino voters, Dominicans lean toward Obama the most, AP

New York.- While U.S. president Barack Obama Is the favorite of a majority of likely Latino voters as most recent surveys of Latino voters show, few reveal the most noticed trend – Dominicans are his most loyal and enthusiastic supporters among the increasingly important voting bloc, AP reports.

“Across the board, from which candidate they planned to vote for and who they felt cared most about Latinos to who is better for the economy and foreign policy, Dominicans as a rule picked the president, by percentages higher than other Hispanics,” the report says.

In the U.S. slightly more than 78 percent of Dominicans said in a recent Florida International University-El Nuevo Herald poll that they planned to vote for Obama, “far above the 69 percent of Latinos in general who said they would. Dominicans also gave Obama the most support on being the stronger candidate on such things as fixing the economy (78 percent), and handling foreign affairs (81.3 percent).”

“Dominicans’ values very much align with President Obama’s…Our community has challenges with getting access to quality education, affordable health care,” the AP said, stressing that they cite several key factors for their extraordinarily high support for the incumbent, including their progressive views on social issues such as civil rights and affirmative action, their community’s struggles with health insurance, the Dominicans’ well-known love for and involvement in politics, and, “for a population that includes many biracial and multiracial people – the affinity with Obama’s mixed-race background.”

“Dominicans’ values very much align with President Obama’s,” said Cid Wilson, a New Jersey resident and son of Dominican immigrants. “Our community has challenges with getting access to quality education, affordable health care.”