How the Public Views Black Presidential Candidates

Abstract

An analysis of opinion data from the 1970s to present, this study will examine attitudes toward Black presidential candidates with three areas of focus in mind: 1) the level of support (or lack thereof) for Black presidential candidates, 2) race-based stereotypes people hold about Black presidential candidates, and 3) emotional attachments that stoke the desire to participate in the presidential selection process. Until 2008, the question “If your party nominated a Black for president, would you vote for him if he were qualified for the job?” was hypothetical, for until then there was no viable Black contender for the U.S. presidency. Whereas a trait stereotype indicates policy preference or issue competency based on a demographic characteristic, which is often made readily available via the press - for example, Jackson’s designation as a “Black presidential candidate,” it can also serve to reinforce the impression among White voters, especially conservatives, that a Black candidate such as Jackson is not the best candidate to represent their views in office. Given that newer scholarship is moving toward an account of stereotypes, and emotions that heighten the value of intrinsic rewards associated with voting and participating in other ways, research of this type is both ambitious and pioneering. Given that the study will gauge emotions when an African American campaigns for presidential office and comparatively so across election cycles, it lays the groundwork for an emerging field: African American political psychology. In as much as emotional responses might vary across racial, ethnic, and gender groups, the study also has implications for intersectionality-type research. Whereas past researchers have analyzed trends in opinion data based exclusively on a Black/White (or racial divide), the present study will account for and rigorously examine differences between and within groups based on race, ethnicity, and gender using survey data and quantitative methods.