The Persistence of Racial Cues and Appeals in American Elections

Lafleur Stephens-Dougan

doi:10.1146/annurev-polisci-082619-015522

Abstract

This article reviews the literature on the persistence of racial cues and appeals in American elections. I focus on three central themes: racial priming, the influence of the Obama presidential campaigns on racial cues, and racial appeals in the context of a diversifying United States. I identify linkages across these domains while also suggesting avenues for future research. I argue that in the context of a diversifying United States, scholars should develop more measures that capture attitudes that are specific to groups other than African Americans. The nation's growing racial and ethnic diversity is also an opportunity to develop and test more theories that explain the political behavior of racial and ethnic minorities beyond the traditional black–white divide. Finally, since much of the research on racial cues focuses on whites’ racial animus, I suggest that scholars spend more time exploring how racial cues influence the behavior of whites with positive racial attitudes.

Highlights

Reny et al (2020) fielded two survey experiments designed to test whether an anti-Latino appeal associated with criminality and an anti-Latino appeal associated with immigration trigger a racial priming effect in a manner similar to an anti-black appeal—in this case, an anti-black appeal that associated African Americans with criminality
As evidenced by the studies discussed throughout this review, research on racial appeals and cues in American elections is a thriving, vibrant area of scholarship
More work is needed to explore whether motivated reasoning, for example, is driving a seeming indifference to explicit racial rhetoric

Summary

Introduction

Obama’s emphasis on issues salient to the Latino community helped to mobilize Latino voters, other research suggests that a focus on matters salient to racial and ethnic minorities, or even a visual association with black constituents, can cost candidates support with white voters (Berinsky et al 2020, Ostfeld 2019, Stephens-Dougan 2016). It appears that Obama’s position as the country’s first African American president was associated with race permeating almost every political issue during his two terms in office, even prompting some racially resentful, non-college-educated whites to flee the Democratic Party (Tesler 2016).

Results

Conclusion