Impact of the 2016 Presidential Campaign on Asian Americans' and Latinos' Political Attitudes and Behavior

Exit polls indicate that Asian Americans and Latinos are increasingly likely to vote for Democratic candidates. One possibility is that anti-immigration positions and rhetoric among Republican candidates have driven the shift. However, the individual-level mechanisms underpinning this shift among these immigrant groups remain unclear.  Political scientists Daniel Hopkins and Efrén Pérez and psychologist Cheryl Kaiser will assess the implications of elite rhetoric on immigration and related issues on the political attitudes and behaviors of Asian Americans and Latinos. Their project seeks to measure how the 2016 presidential campaign has affected partisan identities, views on the political parties and attitudes toward different social groups, as well as voting behavior.

With previous RSF funding, the investigators conducted a spring 2016 survey of 1,720 Asian Americans and Latinos in English and Spanish. They will follow-up with at least 800 of the original respondents. The second wave of the survey will repeat many of the original questions, which will allow the investigators to examine changing attitudes and perceptions. They will also add several questions about respondents’ contact with and exposure to the campaign, discussions with friends, and media consumption patterns.