Latine Perception of Status and Partisan Attachment

• In Event: Ideological Diversity within Minoritized Communities

Abstract

To date, scholars and pundits have wrought with the puzzle of why some Latines identify with and support the Republican Party, which often employs rhetoric and promotes policies that disadvantage the group. Current theories are narrow in their explanatory breadth––for some Latines, we suggest privileged reception into the US, for others varied socialization experiences, and still others we offer assimilation as an answer. These explanations further struggle to account for evolving trends in local contexts that arise every election cycle. I propose that an individual's perception of status within the Latine group can account for the variable conditions in unique contexts across the country and provide cohesion to existing theories that explain variable partisan identification. I theorize that holding privileged socioeconomic, ascriptive, and cultural elements in one's repertoire allows certain individuals to perceive themselves as holding higher status within the group. Semi-structured interviews of Latine respondents in three cities––Los Angeles, Chicago, and Miami––will be employed to address this puzzle and highlight the necessary conditions that structure an individual's perception of in-group status. Additionally, I hope to understand the mechanisms that allow for the activation of an individual's perception of higher status that shape political identification with the Republican Party. In doing so, this project hopes to advance a new explanation unique to Latine political behavior that systematically and theoretically addresses partisan attachment.

Author

• Laura Uribe, University of California San Diego