Turning a Blind Eye: Sources of Republican Tolerance for White Supremacy

• In Event: White Racism, White Supremacy, and Tolerance

Abstract

White supremacist rhetoric and violence have become emboldened in recent years, due in large part to the election of Donald Trump as President in 2016. Republican officials have been increasingly reluctant to criticize or denounce white supremacist violence, including the January 6 insurrection, and have excused, rationalized, and even adopted some white supremacist narratives and claims. We investigate the sources of this tolerance with a focus on the primary election process as a potential driver of this elite polarization. We analyze a pair of survey experiments conducted in the days leading up to the 2022 Ohio primary elections. We find that voters in the Republican primary responded significantly more positively to racialized appeals such as critical race theory and the January 6 insurrection relative to other more standard Republican party positions. These racialized cues were more influential than elite endorsements or candidate background. Most interestingly, we find that this effect is being driven by registered Independents who chose to vote in the Republican primary. These voters’ views are similar to self-identified Republicans on many issues, but they display significantly higher distrust of politicians and political institutions. This same subset of Republican primary voters also displayed significantly less willingness to punish perpetrators of white supremacist violence. Democratic primary voters, on the other hand, responded more strongly to centrist appeals and displayed no reduced willingness to punish white supremacist violence. These results suggest that racial extremism in Republican politics may be driven by constituents who do not trust or identify with the party. In light of these findings, our paper considers what could be driving these trends and what it means for the future of the Republican party. What is the relationship between distrust in the political system and support for white supremacist issues? And what does it mean for the GOP when candidates are being chosen by people who do not align with the party?

Authors

• Victoria Gurevich, The Ohio State University

• Christopher F. Gelpi, The Ohio State University