Race/Ethnicity, Religion and Partisan Leanings

Abstract

Using the 2004–2008 national politics studies, our work suggests that race/ethnicity matters to our understanding of religion and partisan leanings. Among Whites, the association between religious faith and partisan leanings are, in part, explained by contrasting social–political attitudes held by Evangelical and Non-Evangelical Protestants. Similarly, the degree to which White attendees of congregations that encourage political discourse maintain more liberal partisan leanings than other Whites is partly explained by their lower scores on our measures of state power, patriotic symbols, and structural understanding of racial inequality. Even when these views are accounted for, attending worship services, on average, is associated with conservative partisan leanings among Whites. In contrast, worship attendance maintains a fairly negligible relationship with the partisan leanings of Hispanic and African Americans. Similarly, religious faith and attending political congregations maintains a relatively inconsistent relationship with the partisan leanings of racial/ethnic minorities. And, the extent to which these forms of religion are associated with their partisan leanings, their views on state power, patriotism, and race and opportunities play a fairly marginal and inconsistent role in explaining these relationships.