Research Release: New Study Reveals Major Shifts In Latino Perspectives, Priorities
The New York Times digs into new revelations from Valiente Fund’s Latino Worldviews Research
The New York Times’ Jenny Medina dug into fresh insights this week from Valiente Fund’s Latino Worldviews Ethnography in an article titled: Democrats Try to Move Past ‘Cultural Pandering’ to Latinos. Valiente Fund is a project of Way to Rise, and its research has informed Way to Win's understanding of Latino voters. As the Times noted, ever since Donald Trump made significant inroads with Latino voters in 2024, many Democrats have been wondering how the party can win back this crucial demographic of swing voters.
“Those questions are even more urgent now for Democrats, with Latino voters set to play a key midterm role in deciding who wins control of Congress. They make up at least 20 percent of the population in a majority of the most competitive House districts. And Latinos also account for a significant slice of voters in two crucial Senate races—North Carolina and Georgia.”
The Times spoke extensively with Way to Win President Tory Gavito and zeroed in on top takeaways from the Latino Worldviews study, including that Latinos have lost faith in an economic system they once bought into and in an American dream that feels out of reach.
“It’s starting to erode and it’s also starting to erode trust,” Gavito told the Times. “People feel like we’re putting in and not getting anything out. They believe there’s a reciprocity the government should be creating.”
The extensive ethnography was conducted online in January 2026 by Worthy Strategy Group among a demographically and politically diverse group of 122 Latino participants based in Arizona, Nevada, North Carolina, and Texas. The participants varied linguistically between English-dominant (62), Bilingual (38), and Spanish-dominant (22); they also varied by party identification: Democratic (41), Republican (17), and Independent (64).
Latino Worldviews Executive Summary
The study revealed a noteworthy shift in Latino sentiments from research conducted just a few years ago in 2023. Then, people still believed that they could get ahead if they worked hard and played by the rules. But that belief in the “American Dream” has fractured in the past few years with participants clearly articulating that the system doesn’t work for regular people. Now, there is a sentiment that hustle culture is dead. People no longer believe that if they work hard, they can get ahead—but they still want to believe that politicians could do the right thing and fix the system. Here’s what we found:
They defined themselves through values, not demographics. When we asked participants to describe who they are, they led with values—hard work, faith, family, resilience, compassion—not demographics. Race moves up the identity list only when current conditions force it, by ICE and the persistent fear of being detained based on skin color.
They’ve held up their end of the deal. Working, paying taxes, following the rules, managing their money—and in return, they’re getting healthcare they can’t afford, housing that’s out of reach, wages that don’t move, and schools that are falling apart. 93% say a safety net should exist. Even the most conservative voices in this study call for healthcare, basic needs, and economic opportunity. What they expect back: livable wages, affordable education, housing, and safety.
They already know the system is broken—and they can tell you exactly how. 87% say it needs major changes or needs to be torn down. More than half say the economy’s success doesn’t reach them. When asked to imagine the economy as a character, the overwhelming majority described an adversary—a thief, a con artist, a captor. They can map the economic pyramid in detail: who sits at each level, how they got there, and what keeps everyone else in place. They aren’t describing a bad month; they’re describing a bad relationship.
They still haven’t given up on what government is supposed to be. Nearly half don’t trust any level of government, and when asked to pick one word to describe the U.S. government, almost every participant chose a negative one. Disappointment appears not only in their words but in the images they chose and the voicemails they left for their elected officials. They believe the government should provide healthcare, safety, and fairness. They want to trust someone in power, but their frustration lies in the gap between what they expect the government to be and what they experience. Many also think that distrust was deliberately manufactured by elites who benefit from it. They’ve stopped believing anyone in charge takes their responsibility seriously.
They want time more than they want wealth. Over half of respondents just want enough to have options and freedom within reason—not excess, not luxury—just the ability to stop doing constant mental math at the grocery store. Their best financial future is money fading into the background so they can focus on living. Peace. A home they own. Children who grow up without inheriting the same financial anxiety. When they talked about costs, they said groceries and gas. When they talked about dreams, they said time—being present, resting, saying yes to their kids.
They have political values but no political home. 59% describe themselves as spectators in politics, not builders. Most aren’t part of any political movement. Both parties are seen as self-serving. Asked whether political involvement helps or hurts, the split was essentially 50/50. They align with concerns—cost of living, healthcare, wages, fairness—not specific platforms. But they didn’t disappear. They’re involved in their communities every day through church, food banks, gyms, and school pickups. The infrastructure for engagement exists, it just doesn’t have a political name yet—and given their experience with politics so far, that might be an asset.
THE PATH FORWARD
What does this mean for anyone trying to build new pathways to political engagement in these communities? Here’s where the findings point:
On values: The entry point isn’t asking people to adopt new beliefs. It’s speaking to the ones they already hold. Participants described a world where no one speaks the full truth of what they’re living: that they believe in hard work, and they know the system is failing them. Any messenger who validates both sides of that, who honors the effort without dismissing the frustration, is speaking a language no one else is using right now.
On the economy: Fairness is framed as reciprocity, not redistribution. “I held up my end. Where’s yours?” Fairness arguments cut across every ideological line in our study. They open the door to conversations about healthcare, wages, and housing without requiring anyone to abandon self-reliance as a value. It’s not “The system owes you.” It’s “You’ve earned this, and you know it.”
On identity: The fastest way to lose these communities is to treat their ethnicity as the most interesting thing about them. The fastest way to reach them is to speak to the full person they’ve described—someone whose culture gave them their values, whose values gave them their work ethic, and whose work ethic built a life that the system isn’t honoring.
On government and trust: Despite widespread distrust for government, the bar for rebuilding it is low: deliver on promises, use plain language, show up in person, be honest, transparent, and accountable. Speak to them about their daily experience (the cost of groceries, whether they can afford to get sick) and pay attention to them beyond election cycles.
The question behind this research was whether there’s an opening to meaningfully connect with these communities. There is—and they’ve been saying what they need clearly and consistently, across every segment, state, and value orientation. What emerges in our findings is not a population waiting to be moved, but one waiting to be heard.