(The Center Square) - A year into another election cycle, a national survey of Hispanic Americans shows that their opinions, interests and preferences do not align perfectly with either of the country's two major political parties.

A joint effort between Arizona-based OH Predictive Insights, Chris Mottola Consulting and MAS Consulting surveyed 2,000 members of the Hispanic community from 18-25 March.

When asked which issues matter most to them, 29% said that COVID-19 is the most urgent problem facing the nation. After the pandemic, 19% think the most important issue is jobs and the economy, followed by health care. Only 6% said immigration, race relations and education are the most urgent problems.

Most oppose further construction of a wall on the country's southern border.

Democrats have advantages in terms of perception, according to respondents. More than a third said the Democratic agenda is better for the economy, an issue where Republicans typically win over voters, who were 4 percentage points behind their counterparts. Democrats had huge advantages over the Republican Party on how they address the environment, health care and when asked to name "this party cares about me".

The majority of respondents came from four states: California, Texas, Florida and New York. The respective respondents from each state were divided along similar ideological lines to others in their state. Thirty-four percent of Californians identified themselves as "liberal", while 20% considered themselves "conservative". Hispanic Floridians were evenly split at 23%, identifying with each ideology.

One silver lining for Republicans, according to Mike Noble, head of research at OH Predictive Insights, was that many Hispanics think neither party really cares about them, and agree with the sentiment that they are "disgruntled" on both sides.

"The data reveals a whole swathe of the electorate that is not being talked to and the solution is simple: capture the preference by messaging on the pressing issues within the Hispanic community," he said.

This large swathe of voters considers itself independent and politically moderate.

"It's a red flag for both sides and an opportunity for whoever cares to pay more attention to the country's largest minority group, responsible for 52% of our population growth," said César Martínez of MAS Consulting.

A near-unanimous opinion was a lack of interest in being labelled "latinx", a term used by some to be more inclusive of the non-binary gender norms inferred by Latinos and Latinos. Only 1% of the 2,000 respondents preferred to be called the term.