52% of Latinos Prefer Bush Over Gore, Bradley in Poll

Latinos favor Republican George W. Bush over presidential candidates Al Gore and Bill Bradley, a break from a decades-old tradition of supporting Democrats, a new poll showed Thursday.

Bush, the Texas governor, got 52% of Latino support in a hypothetical match-up with Gore, the Democratic vice president, who got 41%, in a Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll.

In a match-up with former Sen. Bradley of New Jersey, Bush pulled 44% to Bradley’s 41%, the poll found.

Overall, Bush beat Gore 50% to 39% and beat Bradley 47% to 39% in the survey. The national telephone poll of 2,014 adults had a margin of error of plus or minus 2.2 percentage points.

Bush, the son of former President George Bush, has had strong appeal with Latinos in his state, where he got 49% of their vote and 69% of the overall vote when he was reelected last year to a second term.

He speaks Spanish at some official functions and used it in a debate with other Republican candidates last week, asking what one presidential rival would do for minorities.

The new poll found Bush won the numbers race regarding respondents’ feelings about the candidates, with 50% saying they felt somewhat or very positively toward him. That was nearly double the 26% who felt somewhat or very negative about Bush.