Latino Voters Still Prefer Barack Obama Over Mitt Romney: Poll

A new poll from NBC, the Wall Street Journal and Telemundo Wednesday shows President Barack Obama is holding a considerable lead over presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney with Latino voters, despite the Republican's attempts to close that gap.

Obama holds support from 67 percent of Latino voters, while Romney is favored by only 23 percent, according to the poll. There's also bad news for Romney over his likeability: 44 percent of Latino voters view him negatively, versus 22 percent who view him positively. In contrast, 64 percent of Hispanics view Obama favorably.

Republicans have warned that Romney needs to close the gap. And while the margins are basically the same as in past polls, the closer it gets to the election the less time Romney has to make inroads with the Hispanic community.

The Romney campaign and the Republican National Committee are focusing on the economy to target Latino voters, bringing up the disproportionately high unemployment and lower educational attainment for Hispanics. The poll indicates that a majority -- 58 percent -- of Latinos think Obama is handling the economy well. While that majority said they approve of Obama's handling of the economy, he only received 44 percent approval from all respondents to the poll.

The polling is consistent with other reports on Latino voter preferences, all of which show Obama at a significant advantage.