When we talk about the black vote, we’re talking about a voting bloc that is much more female than the white vote. 

In 2016, 64% of eligible Black women said they voted, compared with 54% of eligible Black men. The gender gap among White voters was far smaller (3 percentage points). 

One reason why the black vote tilts leftward is that gender gap. President Trump won the votes of 1 in 5 black men, but that’s not that big of an impact because of the gender gap.

But the gender gap is smaller to occasionally non-existent among Hispanics. That’s also one reason why the Hispanic vote is not as skewed.

Hispanic women outvoted Hispanic men by about 5 points in 2016 (50% vs. 45%). However, the gender gap among Hispanic voters has not been consistent. At times in the past several decades, Hispanic men and Hispanic women have said they voted at roughly similar shares.

That’s what has Democrats freaking out because Hispanics are the largest non-white minority in America. And without a major gender gap, Hispanic men can’t be written off Here’s the New York Times biting its digital nails.

While Democrats won the vast majority of Hispanic voters in the 2020 presidential race, the results also showed Republicans making inroads with this demographic, the largest nonwhite voting group — and particularly among Latino men. According to exit polls, 36 percent of Latino men voted for Donald J. Trump in 2020, up from 32 percent in 2016. 

There are social and economic issues underlying all this. And a big part of it is a rejection of Latinx and the Life of Julia stuff. Hispanic men want to raise and take care of their families.

These men challenged the notion that they were part of a minority ethnic group or demographic reliant on Democrats; many of them grew up in areas where Hispanics are the majority and are represented in government. And they said many Democrats did not understand how much Latino men identified with being a provider — earning enough money to support their families is central to the way they view both themselves and the political world.

Not a great fit for the party obsessed with destroying gender and the patriarchy.

Like any voter, these men are also driven by their opinions on a variety of issues: Many mention their anti-abortion views, support for gun rights and strict immigration policies. They have watched their friends and relatives go to western Texas to work the oil fields, and worry that new environmental regulations will wipe out the industry there. Still, most say their favorable view of Republicans stems from economic concerns, a desire for low taxes and few regulations. They say they want to support the party they believe will allow them to work and become wealthy.

What they used to call the American Dream.

Surveys conducted last year by Equis Research, which studies Latino voters, showed a striking gender gap, with Latino men far more inclined than Latina women to support Republicans.

And researchers believe that Mexican-American men under the age of 50 are perhaps the demographic that should most concern Democrats, because they are more likely to drift toward conservative candidates. 

And they’re much less resistant to voting Republican instinctively the way that black or Jewish voters are. Despite all the “Punish your enemies” stuff, the gag reflex isn’t there.

And that is what’s really freaking Democrats out. With no walls to the plantation, they can come and go. And they do.

Winning over Latino men is in some ways a decades-old challenge for Democrats — a nagging reminder that the party has never had a forceful grip on this demographic. Still, some strategists on the left are increasingly alarmed that the party is not doing enough to reach men whose top priorities are based on economics, rather than racial justice or equality. 

But all that Democrats can do is talk about racism. And the highest-profile Democrat elected official is… Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, who isn’t helping much.

The New York Times tries to get to grips with its racial and class tone-deafness.

Sergio Arellano of Phoenix, Ariz., said he had a story he liked to tell about the moment he registered as a Republican. When he was an 18-year-old Army infantryman on home leave, he went to a July 4 event and spotted the voter registration table. He asked the woman sitting there: What’s the difference between Republicans and Democrats?

Democrats, he recalled her saying, are for the poor. Republicans are for the rich.

“Well that made it easy — I didn’t want to be poor, I wanted to be rich, so I chose Republican,” Mr. Arellano said. “Obviously she figured I would identify with the poor. There’s an assumption that you’re starting out in this country, you don’t have any money, you will identify with the poor. But what I wanted was to make my own money.”

And that’s exactly what Democrats don’t want.