Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-2plfb Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-01T00:41:28.185Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Heightened Importance of Racism and Sexism in the 2018 US Midterm Elections

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 September 2020

Brian F. Schaffner Open the ORCID record for Brian F. Schaffner [Opens in a new window]
Brian F. Schaffner*
Affiliation:
Tufts University, Medford, MA, USA
*
*Corresponding author. E-mail: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

In 2016, attitudes related to racism and sexism were strong predictors of vote choice for president. Since then, issues related to race and gender have continued to be an important part of the political agenda. This letter shows that hostile sexism and denial of racism emerged as stronger predictors of the House vote in the 2018 cycle than they had been in 2016. The results show that the increased importance of these factors came largely from the shifting of less sexist and less racist voters from voting Republican in 2016 to voting for Democrats in 2018. Overall, the results suggest that Trump's hostility towards women and minorities is becoming part of the Republican Party's brand, and that this appears to have created an electoral penalty for Republican candidates in 2018.

Keywords

sexismracismvoteelectionTrump
Type
Letter
Information
British Journal of Political Science , Volume 52 , Issue 1 , January 2022 , pp. 492 - 500
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Ansolabehere, S, Schaffner, BF and Luks, S (2019) 2018 CCES Competitive Districts Survey.Google Scholar
Cassese, EC and Barnes, TD (2018) Reconciling sexism and women's support for Republican candidates: a look at gender, class, and whiteness in the 2012 and 2016 presidential races. Political Behavior 41(3), 1–24.Google Scholar
DeSante, CD and Smith, CW (2020) Racial Stasis: The Millennial Generation and the Stagnation of Racial Attitudes in American Politics. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Engelhardt, A (Forthcoming) Racial attitudes through a partisan lens. British Journal of Political Science. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0007123419000437.Google Scholar
Glick, P and Fiske, ST (1996) The ambivalent sexism inventory: differentiating hostile and benevolent sexism. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 70(3), 491.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hopkins, DJ and Washington, S (Forthcoming) The rise of Trump, the fall of prejudice? Tracking white Americans’ racial attitudes 2008–2018 via a panel survey. Public Opinion Quarterly.Google Scholar
Jacobson, GC (2004) The Politics of Congressional Elections, 6th Edn, New York: Longman.Google Scholar
Jacobson, GC (2012) The president's effect on partisan attitudes. Presidential Studies Quarterly 42(4), 683–718.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Norris, P and Inglehart, R (2019) Cultural Backlash: Trump, Brexit, and Authoritarian Populism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rivers, D and Lauderdale, B (2016) Beware the phantom swings: why dramatic bounces in the polls aren't always what they seem. YouGov, 1 November.Google Scholar
Schaffner, BF (2020), “Replication data for: The heightened importance of racism and sexism in the 2018 US midterm elections, https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/BVNZC8, Harvard Dataverse, V1CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schaffner, BF, MacWilliams, M and Nteta, T (2018) Understanding white polarization in the 2016 vote for president: the sobering role of racism and sexism. Political Science Quarterly 133(1), 9–34.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Setzler, M and Yanus, AB (2018) Why did women vote for Donald Trump. PS Political Science & Politics 51(3), 523–527.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sides, J, Tesler, M and Vavreck, L (2018) Identity Crisis: The 2016 Election and the Battle for the Meaning of America. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Valentino, NA, Wayne, C and Oceno, M (2018) Mobilizing sexism: the interaction of emotion and gender attitudes in the 2016 US presidential election. Public Opinion Quarterly 82(suppl_1), 213–235.Google Scholar
Supplementary material: Link

Schaffner Dataset

Dataset

https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/BVNZC8
Link
Supplementary material: PDF

Schaffner supplementary material

Schaffner supplementary material

Download Schaffner supplementary material(PDF)
PDF 265.8 KB