A former advisor to Barack Obama has warned that Democrats have ‘no path’ back to the White House unless they win back Latino voters.
Former presidential aide Dan Pfeiffer, aged 49, believes that the key to the struggling party’s revival in the upcoming election lies within this demographic group. Pfeiffer expressed this viewpoint during an appearance on Pod Save America.
Pfeiffer emphasized the substantial nature of the challenges faced by the party, stating, ‘It is impossible to ignore the sheer magnitude of our issues.’ This statement was made during a discussion with Jon Favreau, a former Obama speechwriter, on the latest episode of the progressive podcast.
‘You can kind of tell yourself that things might be kind of OK by looking at just the shift from ’20 to ’24,’ he added.
‘But if you really want to assess where we are as a party, you have to look at the shift from 2016 to 2024.’
Pfeiffer pointed out that former Democrat hopeful Hillary Clinton was much more popular among the Hispanic population than President Trump.
She gained around 70 percentage points more from the demographic voter pool than Trump did – a wider margin than Obama.
Despite this significance, it was noted that former Vice President Kamala Harris only managed to secure a 54-percentage-point lead over Trump within this demographic. Furthermore, various exit polls suggested that Trump actually saw an increase in support among Latino men.
A former advisor to Barack Obama has warned the Democrats have ‘no path’ back to the White House unless they win back Latino voters. (Pictured: Supporters hold a sign as Donald Trump arrived to speak during a campaign event in Tucson, Arizona on September 12, 2024)
Ex-presidential aide Dan Pfeiffer (pictured), 49, told Pod Save America the demographic hold the key to the beleaguered party’s redemption at the next election
It comes as voter polls indicate that New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (pictured) could be the Democratic Party’s next presidential candidate
‘Latinos moved 17 points (to the right) in eight years,’ Pfeiffer said. ‘Latino men went 14 points (toward the GOP) in eight years.’
He added that ‘Latinos are the fastest-growing population’ in the country.
‘They are particularly politically powerful because of how the population is distributed in electoral-rich sunbelt states like Texas, Florida, Arizona, Nevada,’ he said.
‘They are becoming more of the electorate, and we are losing more of them at a very fast rate. If that trend continues, there is no path to Democrats winning elections.’
It comes as voter polls indicate that New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez could be the Democratic Party’s next presidential candidate.
There are 65.2 million Hispanics and Latinos in the US, or around one-fifth of the population, according to the US Census Bureau.
‘The message I take from this is, anyone who thinks that we can get away with just tinkering around the edges, just hoping that Donald Trump becomes unpopular or they nominate some yahoo in 2028 or we’re going to ride the wave of tariffs and inflation to a narrow House victory is just rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic,’ Pfieffer added.
‘We have to be willing to ask very hard questions.’
Pictured: A Democrat rally for Bernie Sanders on April 14, 2025
Efforts by Trump’s campaign group to sway over millions of Hispanic voters proved hugely successful, despite a massive pre-election controversy when a comedian at a Trump rally compared Puerto Rico to a ‘floating island of garbage’.
Trump’s biggest gains among Hispanic voters were evident in the key states of Pennsylvania and Michigan.
Before midnight on election night, Trump became the first Republican since George H. W. Bush in 1988 to win Miami-Dade, a county where two-thirds of residents are Latino.
As well as targeting Hispanic voters, Team Trump also aimed to sway over African-Americans — another huge demographic group in the US.
But there was less of a noticeable impact on African-American voters.
Exit polls suggested Trump narrowed the gap with Harris among Black men by two points, compared with 2020.
Of the 100-plus counties with a Black population of at least 50 percent, the Republicans gained ground in all but eight.
