Latino Views towards Politics and Ideology Using Interviews

• In Event: Poster Session: Racial and Ethnic Politics & Security and MENA Politics
  In Poster Session: Poster Session: Racial and Ethnic Politics

Abstract

As the Latino voting population continues to grow in size and electoral significance in the United States, there remain important yet unanswered questions about the views of Latino individuals towards contemporary politics and political ideologies. In particular, while there remains a large gap between the turnout rates of Latino voters and their White and Black counterparts, there is limited research—especially recently—on the potential drivers of political disaffection, partisan detachment, and alienation among Latinos. Additionally, recent elections have led to growing media narratives discussing a possible rightward shift within the Latino population.

We use an interview-based approach to ask Latino respondents from a wide range of partisan and ideological positions about their perspectives about American politics, perceptions of the major political parties, and ideological dispositions. We take this approach to be able to probe at the nuances and possible contradictions evident in voters’ perceptions of politics, in line with classic work on ideology. Many respondents expressed disaffection with both political parties, even when they identified with one, and expressed a desire for more options. Additionally, many participants emphasized that they agree with some Democratic policies and some Republican ones, rejecting the idea that they need to agree with everything the party says.

Much of the disaffection was focused on national level politics; many participants expressed more efficacy and willingness to engage with politics at the local level.. For example, when discussing descriptive representation, while they were skeptical about co-ethnic representation at the national level, they believed that having Latino political leaders at the local level could have a big effect. While immigration was frequently presented as a unifying issue for Latinos and a reason to not support Republicans, social issues such as LGBTQIA+ rights were seen as a potential source of conflict given the possibility that Latinos would be more socially conservative compared to Democratic elite stances on the issue. And lastly, respondents had mixed responses to questions of whether there is a “Latino vote,” and perceptions of linked fate with the overall takeaway generally being that such efforts are mostly due to coalition-building around immigration rather than commonality on other issues. Overall, our respondents reflect much of the disaffection and alienation that quantitative studies have previously identified while perhaps helping provide a few potentially more helpful strategies, such as increasing local Latino representation and taking a more nuanced approach to what issues might reach which groups of Latino voters.

Authors

• Alejandro Flores, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

• Alejandro Frydman, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

• Derek Wakefield, Emory University