Poll finds Obama with 68-26 percent edge among Hispanic voters

President Obama holds a commanding lead over his Republican challenger among Latino voters, with a particular advantage among women, according to a poll released Monday by Latino Decisions.

The survey finds Obama with a 68-26 percent lead over Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney among all Latinos. Among Hispanic women, Obama’s lead is even larger. He leads Romney among this consituency by a 74-21 percent margin — a staggering 53-point advantage. 

{mosads}Among men, the lead decreases to 61-32 percent in favor of Obama. Both Hispanic women and men give the president a 71 percent favorability rating, while Romney’s favorability fails to crack 30 percent with either group.

Romney is looking to chip away at that lead with a speech Monday afternoon to the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce in Los Angeles. Romney will hit the president on the economy and immigration, according to excerpts of his remarks released by his campaign.

“No one is exempt from the pain of this economy, but the Hispanic community has been particularly hard-hit,” Romney plans to say. “While national unemployment is 8.1 percent, Hispanic unemployment is over 10 percent. Over 2 million more Hispanics are living in poverty today than the day President Obama took office.”

Romney also criticizes President Obama’s decision to stop deportation of illegal immigrants brought to the United States as children, which has bolstered Obama with Hispanics.

“Candidate Obama said that one of his highest priorities would be to fix immigration in his first year in office. Despite his party having majorities in both houses of Congress, the president never even offered up a bill,” Romney will say. “Like so many issues confronting our nation, when it comes to immigration, politics has been put ahead of people for too long.”

The Obama campaign punched back with a Web ad released Monday morning that characterizes Romney’s Hispanic outreach as one of his “most implausible makeovers yet.”

The Latino Decisions poll also found promising signs for down-ticket Democrats with Hispanic voters. 

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Hispanic women favor generic House Democrats by a 68-23 percent margin, while Hispanic men give Democrats a 59-26 percent lead. Around six in 10 Hispanics view House Democrats favorably, while just around a quarter of Hispanics surveyed view House Republicans favorably.

Latinas are far more likely to say Democrats will make the right decisions and address the issues of concern to women (78-13 percent); Latinos also favor Democrats by a 68-19 percent margin.