What do you believe is the single most important factor driving up the cost of living in Nigeria?

Former US President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during a presidential debate with US Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on September 10, 2024.

The economic woes from inflation look to have accelerated a shift of Latino voters toward Republicans, cutting in half a Democratic lead with a critical voting group in the lead up to a tight presidential election, according to an NBC/CNBC/Telemundo survey.

The survey of 1,000 Latino registered voters found the Democratic presidential candidate, Vice President Kamala Harris, leading the Republican candidate, former President Donald Trump, by 54% to 40%. That's considerably less than the 36-point lead that President Joe Biden enjoyed in the run-up to the 2020 election. Biden's advantage was almost half again the 50-point lead that Hillary Clinton held over Trump in 2016, suggesting a longer-term trend that shows Latinos in the Democratic camp but in diminishing numbers.

"There's an intensity around these issues that is quite striking,'' said Aileen Cardona-Arroyo, senior vice president at Hart Research, the Democratic pollsters for the survey. "The cost of living and inflation is really what is informing a lot of the way that people are thinking about economy and the economic future of the country."

Harris's 14-point lead is the narrowest margin for a Democratic candidate among surveyed Latino voters in at least the past four elections, going back to 2012. The survey also found a 54% to 42% preference for Democratic control of Congress among Latinos, the smallest Democratic lead since 2012. That indicates a shift that could be more far-reaching than just the presidential race.

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