Miguel Gomez, 21, could never fathom supporting a Republican, until this election. He grew up in a solidly Democratic middle-class home in Phoenix, the oldest son of a Mexican-born father and a mother who planted a Kamala Harris sign in the front yard.
“For the longest time, I was a Democrat,” he said. “I didn’t look into it.”
But as Republicans have fought to peel away Latino voters in swing states, Mr. Gomez shocked his parents and close friends when he said he was leaning toward voting for former President Donald J. Trump. With his plans to forego college and become a welder, and his steady diet of right-leaning bro podcasters, Mr. Gomez did not feel as though he belonged in the Democratic Party anymore.
His parents were not having it. To them, voting against Mr. Trump was a statement about identity, not a transactional decision about food or gas prices.
“We grew up in our culture,” said his father, Miguel Sr., whose family brought him to the United States from Mexico City when he was a toddler. But his son? “Him, not so much.”
When the younger man’s early-voting ballot arrived in the mail last week, he agonized over choosing between the two empty bubbles facing him.
“Am I overthinking everything?” he asked.
Across Arizona, a state where about one in four voters is Latino, the 2024 election is dividing Latino voters like no other. Many families and friends who were once solidly Democratic say they now find themselves on opposing sides of America’s gaping political chasm.
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