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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: brian.schaffner@tufts.edu
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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

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https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/BVNZC8
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