Work

The Surprising Stability of Asian Americans’ and Latinos’ Partisan Identities in the Early Trump Era

Year: 2023

Type: article

Abstract: Two prominent, compatible accounts contend that Asian Americans and Latinos are not strongly connected to America's political parties and that their partisanship is responsive to identity threats. Donald Trump's political ascent presents a critical test, as Trump reoriented the Republican Party by foregrounding anti-immigrant hostility. Here, we test these perspectives using one of the first-ever population-based panels of Asian Americans and Latinos fielded 2016 to 2018. Across various empirical tests, we uncover surprising strength and stability in respondents’ partisan identities. In a period of pronounced anti-immigrant rhetoric, these groups remained steadfast in their party affiliation. We also show that pan-ethnic identities were stable over this period and that partisanship can predict subsequent pan-ethnic identities more consistently than the reverse. By 2016, pan-ethnic identities were already stably integrated with partisanship, with little evidence of situational shifts in response to identity threats.

Source: The Journal of Politics

DOI: 10.1086/724964

Authors: Daniel J. Hopkins, Cheryl R. Kaiser, Efrén O. Pérez

Institutions: University of Pennsylvania, University of Washington, University of California, Los Angeles

Language: English

Topic: Electoral Systems and Political Participation

Subfield: Political Science and International Relations

Field: Social Sciences

Domain: Social Sciences

SDG: Peace, justice, and strong institutions

Open Access status: green

OpenAlex ID: W4324132246

FWCI: 48.17

Cites: 57

Cited by: 50

Related to: 10