Poll: Obama's lead with Latinos jumping to historic high

By Cameron Joseph/The Hill

President Obama holds a 73-21 percent lead over Mitt Romney among Latino voters, a new high-water mark for the president. 

The new 52-point margin represents a high watermark for Obama in the weekly tracking poll from Latino Decisions, and is a significant jump from the 65-26 percent advantage he held six weeks ago. 

Romney has failed to make inroads despite a push at the GOP convention to highlight Hispanic Republicans, while Latino voters who have tuned in during the period shortly before and since the conventions have mostly gravitated towards Obama.

Obama is polling a higher percentage in the poll than the 67 percent of the Latino vote he won four years ago, when GOP presidential nominee Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) won 31 percent, according to exit polls. 

Romney himself said at a private fundraiser earlier this year that his campaign was "doomed" if it couldn't make inroads with Hispanic voters, who make up a significant — and fast-growing — chunk of the population in key swing states including Florida, Nevada and Colorado.

A Romney campaign official told The Hill in August that the campaign's goal was to win 38 percent of the Hispanic vote, though a Romney surrogate later said that figure might be for the swing states, not nationally.

One thin silver lining for Romney: He trails Obama by a less daunting 61 to 33 percent in the swing states, according to a six-week average of the Latino Decisions polls. Those figures skew towards him because of his strong standing with Cuban-American voters in Florida, pollster Matt Barreto told The Hill.

"The swing state number is heavily influenced by Romney's standing among Cuban Americans," Barreto told The Hill. "He's definitely doing well among Cuban Americans — that's his only group amongst Latinos."