Racial Conservatism and Turnout: Divergence of Non-White and White Evangelicals

• In Event: Public Opinion, Mobilization and Race

Abstract

This project considers differences in how racial conservatism influences the decision to turnout to vote in both local and national elections across white and non-white evangelicals. Drawing on conflict decision theory, the paper argues that Latinx, Asian-American, and particularly African-American evangelicals may be hindered from participating in elections on the basis of their racial conservatism, due to an internal conflict between their religious and racial/ethnic identities. White evangelicals, on the other hand, do not face such a misalignment between these identities. Results from the 2016 ANES and the 2016 Collaborative Multiracial Post-Election Survey provide evidence for such expectations. White evangelicals are strongly mobilized by their racial conservatism to cast ballots. Latinx and Asian-American evangelicals do not as effectively transfer their racial attitudes into political action. Racially conservative African-American evangelicals, in contrast, are significantly less likely to turn out in local and national elections in 2016. The findings underscore the need to examine how race and religion work in tandem to influence political behavior in current American Politics.

Author

• Nathan Kar Ming Chan, University of California, Irvine