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The Evangelical Vote and Race in the 2016 Presidential Election

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 January 2018

Janelle Wong
Janelle Wong*
Affiliation:
University of Maryland
*
Address correspondence and reprint requests to: Janelle Wong, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742. E-mail: janellew@umd.edu
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Abstract

This paper highlights differences in evangelical identity and its association with political attitudes across racial groups. It finds that White evangelicals hold more conservative views than Black, Latinx, and Asian American evangelicals, despite similar levels of religiosity. White evangelicals' more conservative political attitudes are driven by a sense of in-group embattlement, or the idea that their group faces as much or more discrimination as persecuted outgroups. This sense of in-group embattlement is distinct from the effects of economic resources, economic anxiety, partisanship, region (South) and generalized conservative outlook. The paper draws on survey data collected in the immediate aftermath of the 2016 election.

Keywords

evangelicalspoliticsraceimmigration2016 election
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Race, Ethnicity, and Politics , Volume 3 , Special Issue 1: Race, Religion, Gender and the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election , March 2018 , pp. 81 - 106
Copyright
Copyright © The Race, Ethnicity, and Politics Section of the American Political Science Association 2018 

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