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Minority Group Opinion in the U.S. States

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 January 2021

Barbara Norrander  and
Sylvia Manzano
Barbara Norrander
Affiliation:
University of Arizona
Sylvia Manzano
Affiliation:
University of Arizona
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Abstract

As numerous pieces of past research have shown, the opinions of state residents significantly influence the politics and policies of the 50 U.S. states. This type of research flourished when aggregate-level indicators of overall state ideology and partisanship were devised from pooled national public opinion polls. This article provides an extension of such research by devising, from state surveys, aggregate-level measures of the ideological and partisan orientations of racial and ethnic minority voters, as well as that of white voters. These new data demonstrate that the opinions of African Americans, Latinos, and Asian Americans vary across the states, and in many cases, significantly alter the political orientations of a state's citizenry. These data will facilitate research that incorporates racial and ethnic diversity in the study of public opinion, U.S. state politics, and policy.

Type
Research Article
Information
State Politics & Policy Quarterly , Volume 10 , Issue 4 , Winter 2010 , pp. 446 - 483
Copyright
Copyright © 2010 by the Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois

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