President Trump is leading significantly among young Latino men in the battleground states of Nevada and Arizona, new polling indicates, as both presidential campaigns seek to court the Latino vote in a razor-thin election contest. 

Trump is leading Vice President Harris by 12 percentage points in Arizona among Latino men ages 18-34 — as 51 percent said they’d support Trump while only 39 percent support Ms. Harris, USA Today/Suffolk University polling found. Among older Latino men in Arizona, ages 35–49, Trump leads by a whopping 20 percentage points. 

Nevada saw similar support for Trump, with 53 percent of young Latino men backing Trump while 40 percent said they supported Ms. Harris. Latino voters will play a key role in those states, as they make up a quarter of Arizona voters and one-fifth of Nevada voters. 

“And suddenly, Latino men have become an electoral asset for GOP, and an electoral liability for Democrats,”  the president of the Libre Initiative, Daniel Garza, wrote on X of the polling numbers. 

The polling indicates a substantial gender gap between Latino voters when it comes to their vote, with Ms. Harris retaining strong support from Latina women. Overall, 57 percent of Latino voters in Arizona are leaning towards or voting for Ms. Harris, and 56 percent said the same in Nevada.

The Latino vote is going to be “significant” in this election, a Democratic strategist focusing on Latino politics, Marc Campos, tells the Sun, especially in swing states like Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Arizona, “where you have a significant Latino vote.”

Trump is “making headway among younger Latino males, but certainly not with younger Latina females, because they’re pretty much hardcore in the Harris-Walz camp because of the reproductive rights issue,” he says. “There’s just something about the Trump messaging, you know, ‘I’m running against the system, the system is rigged,’ it just resonates better with males than it does with females.” 

The new polling numbers are the latest to indicate that the Democratic grip on Latino voters could be softening. Recent NBC polling found that although Ms. Harris leads Trump nationally with Latinos, the “Democrats’ edge is at its lowest level in the last four presidential cycles.” 

Trump is planning two Latino-centered events with the election rapidly approaching. He had been scheduled to participate in a roundtable with Latino leaders at his Miami golf club on Tuesday, but his campaign announced Monday that the event would be postponed due to severe weather from Hurricane Milton. 

“The Latino-American community knows that President Donald J. Trump is the only candidate who can bring prosperity back to America, and he looks forward to rescheduling tomorrow’s event to foster more conversations on how we can expand the reach of the American Dream for all,” a Trump campaign senior advisor, Danielle Alvarez, said. 

Another event, a town hall with Univision, was also postponed due to the hurricane and has been rescheduled to October 16. 

As Democrats lose traction among some Latino voters, one issue could be bad messaging from the party on a national level, Mr. Campos says. 

“When you look at the Harris-Walz campaign, when you see who their faces are nationally, their surrogates, they’re either women, progressive males, or African Americans,” he says, adding that its difficult to “name who is the Latino spokesperson that’s out front for Harris-Walz” and that “rarely do you see a Latino face” speaking on behalf of the campaign. 

The Sun has reached out to the Harris campaign for comment about the polling numbers.