Latino Candidates Research Articles

A Latino on the Ballot: Explaining Coethnic Voting Among Latinos and the Response of White Americans

In recent campaigns, candidates have sought to attract votes from the growing Latino electorate through ethnic cues. Yet, we know very little about the impact of appeals to ethnicity. This article examines the role that ethnic cues play in shaping the political opinions and choices of Latinos, as well as the response of non-Hispanic White Americans (Anglos). We take up the simplest of group cues, the ethnicity of the candidate. We argue that candidate ethnicity is an explicit ethnic cue that alters the political choices of Latinos through priming of their ethnic linked fate, but only affects Anglos through spreading activation of primed ethnic attitudes to national identity considerations. Evidence from an experiment that manipulated exposure to candidate ethnicity information provides evidence for these claims. Our results help to explain coethnic voting among Latinos and resistance to Latino candidates among Anglos.

The Institutional and Demographic Determinants of Latino Representation

Under what conditions are Latino candidates elected to Congress and state legislatures? How much does the ethnic composition of a district affect the chances that a Latino candidate will be elected in that district? Latinos constitute the single largest minority group in the country, one that is growing at an exponential rate. Post‐2000 redistricting created more majority‐Latino districts, but the absolute number of Latino legislators did not increase correspondingly. My analysis demonstrates that states with citizen legislatures and with higher legislative turnover rates are more conducive to the election of Latino candidates than are other states. Institutional and demographic differences among states affect the states' Latino descriptive representation. Namely, the institutional design of the legislature matters in terms of electoral responsiveness, with Arizona and California being the most responsive bodies and New York and the U.S. House the least responsive.

Deracialization and Latino Politics

Deracialization literature has a rich history, but it has generally focused on local-level black candidates in nonpartisan environments. This article extends the deracialization literature to a competitive statewide context and focuses on Latino candidates, offering a broader partisan environment where established deracialization theory and voter response are tested at the individual level. Both John Salazar’s and Ken Salazar’s successful 2004 campaigns for national office are explored using qualitative and quantitative data. The combined approaches yield evidence that Latinos in competitive partisan environments are influenced to deracialize their campaigns and that conservative non-Latino voters are positively and significantly influenced by these nonracial messages.

“Should They Dance with the One Who Brung 'Em?” Latinos and the 2008 Presidential Election

Although Latinos have grown substantially as a percent of the American population to now comprise the largest ethnic-racial minority group in the U.S., whether or not this national population growth can translate into direct political influence in presidential elections has always been unclear (DeSipio 1996; Fraga and Ramírez 2003–04). At least since the 1988 election, however, scholars of Latino politics have argued that Latino voters could serve as key swing voters if certain contextual and strategic conditions existed in specific contests (Guerra 1992). Among these are: a competitive election in states where Latinos are a determinative segment of the electorate; strategic mobilization of Latino voters; active engagement in the election by Latino elected officials, related organizational leaders, and Latino campaign strategists; a viable Latino candidate; and issues of specific relevance to Latino voters (Guerra and Fraga 1996).

İSí Se Puede! Latino Candidates and the Mobilization of Latino Voters

Traditional studies of political participation assume an electoral environment in which voters decide between two White candidates, and find Latino citizens less politically engaged. Given the growth in the number of Latino candidates for office over the past 20 years, this article tests whether ethnicity impacts Latino voting behavior. I argue that the presence of a Latino candidate mobilizes the Latino electorate, resulting in elevated voter turnout and strong support for the co-ethnic candidates. Although some research provides a theoretical basis for such a claim, this article brings together a comprehensive body of empirical evidence to suggest that ethnicityissalient for Latinos and provides a coherent theory that accounts for the empowering role of co-ethnic candidates. Analysis of recent mayoral elections in five major U.S. cities reveals that Latinos were consistently mobilized by co-ethnic candidates.

Urban electoral coalitions in an age of immigration: Time and place in the 2001 and 2005 Los Angeles mayoral primaries

Abstract Urban politics have been reshaped by large-scale immigration. What coalition patterns are likely to arise in an urban environment that has experienced dramatic demographic and political change? This study examines the 2001 and 2005 Los Angeles mayoral primary elections. Such non-partisan primary elections provide effective vehicles to measure core coalitions of citywide candidates. Our dependent variable is voting for Antonio Villaraigosa, a liberal Latino candidate associated with the rise of immigrant communities, running against James Hahn, a white candidate with roots in the African American community. Three core coalitions appeared in the primaries. In both 2001 and 2005, Villaraigosa benefited from a stable coalition that combined Latino mobilization with some white liberal support. Hahn's core was among African Americans although that base had eroded for him by 2005. There was little evidence of a coalition of color in either primary election. A third alliance, a white-led moderate coalition drawing support from neither African Americans nor Hispanics, emerged unexpectedly as having great stability over both elections. If Los Angeles had partisan elections like New York City, candidates riding that coalition would have had a clear path into the general election by winning the Republican primary. A significant spatial dimension emerged in the vote in both primary elections. Racial and ethnic bloc voting was reinforced by the residential concentrations of ethnic groups in Los Angeles. We conclude that space and time are related to each other in the construction and maintenance of political coalitions surrounding immigration.

Latino Diversity and Political Representation

This essay explores ethnic and class differences among Latino groups in Massachusetts and how these differences affect political participation and representation. My findings are based on data from a study that included in-depth, semi-structured interviews with seventeen Latino political candidates, community representatives and campaign managers. Presented here, they raise questions about the inter-group dynamics of Latino politics and how ethnic relations, class position, and identity affect political participation and representation. As I will suggest, Latino candidates and community residents in the cities of Massachusetts are well aware of the tensions among the various Latino groups, but they, for the most part, recognize the need to put forth a pan-Latino agenda in order to mobilize their communities and to gain as many resources as possible for their communities. This pan-Latino identity is not necessarily self-serving, but benefits community members as much as the Latino elites. A certain degree ...

Superintendents’ Perceptions about Social Distance, Succession, and “Sunset” Provisions for Asian, Latino, and Native American Candidates Seeking Building-Level Administrator Positions

Research addressing the attraction and selection of individuals for administrator positions is encapsulated in a structural model that depicts different phases of the employee procurement process. Within the present study, attention is devoted to the prescreening stage of the selection process, and screening decisions of superintendents are examined for applicants varying in national origin (Asian, Latino, or Native American), chronological age (29 years old, 49 years old, or control condition), and level of administrator position sought (assistant high school principals or high school principal). Screening decisions of superintendents are cast into a 3 × 3 x 2 factorial design and a MANOVA indicates a significant interaction effect for national origin by focal positional. This finding is interpreted from a social distance perspective and alternative explanations are provided. Results suggest that only certain groups should follow the succession pattern and that a sunset provision fails to exist for these particular groups of job candidates.

A Natural Experiment of Race-Based and Issue Voting: The 2001 City of Los Angeles Elections

The theory of racially polarized voting suggests that race is a primary determinant of vote choice in elections where a minority candidate is pitted against a white candidate. The spatial model of voting suggests that voters consider the issue positions of candidates and choose the candidate closest to their own positions. The unique context of the 2001 Los Angeles city election allows us to test these two theories. In each of two races in this election, a Latino candidate competed against a white candidate. In one race the white candidate was considered more liberal, while in the other race the Latino candidate was seen as more liberal. This particular ethnic and ideological composition provides us with a natural experimenting which to test the two competing theories. While voter ethnicity mattered, we show that consistent with the spatial model, voters also relied on issues and ideology as factors in their voting choices. By considering the choices voters are making in two different elections, we argue that estimates of the extent of racial voting in previous research may be overstated.

"Audiences Implicadas e Ignoradas in the English and Spanish Language 2002 Texas Gubernatorial Debates1

ABSTRACT In the 2002 Texas Democratic primary for Governor, two Latino candidates faced off in a pair of historic debates: one in English and one in Spanish. In this study the authors examined the questions and answers from these debates to uncover the audiences implied and ignored in the English and Spanish events. They found that the English language questions were longer, linked to the Democratic Party, and required candidate accountability, whereas the Spanish language questions were shorter, more candidate-centered, and focused on racial and border concerns. They also found remarkable symmetry between the questions and answers in both debates: policy, race, and border-related questions were met with policy, race and border-related responses, candidate-centered questions received strategic responses and non-traditional questions begot careful responses—a pattern that made the English language debate more substantive in questions and answers than the Spanish language counterpart. This essay details these themes and advances conclusions from these data.

Metropolitan Latino Political Behavior: Voter Turnout and Candidate Preference in Los Angeles

ABSTRACT:Most research on Latino voting behavior conclusively finds that as a group, Latinos vote at lower rates than other racial and ethnic groups in the United States. In this article, we argue that given the appropriate circumstances, Latinos should be expected to vote at higher rates than other racial and ethnic groups. In particular, we think the presence of a viable Latino candidate will spur increased Latino turnout and that when Latinos candidates run for office, Latino voters will prefer the co-ethnic candidate. Analyzing precinct level returns from the Los Angeles 2001 mayoral and the 2000 presidential elections we show this may be the case. High-density Latino precincts show higher rates of turnout when Latino candidates are on the ballot, and these same precincts show heightened support for the co-ethnic candidate. In fact, for the first time ever in Los Angeles, the 2001 mayoral election witnessed Latinos voting at the highest rates of any racial or ethnic group in the city.

The Limitations of the Deracialization Concept in the 2001 Los Angeles Mayoral Election

This paper investigates the use of a deracialized electoral strategy by a Latino candidate, Antonio Villaraigosa, during his campaign for mayor of the city of Los Angeles, California. The aim of the research is to explain why the Latino candidate, given that Los Angeles has a sizeable Latino and African American population, loss the election to a white candidate who played the race card. We find that Villaraigosa's deracialized campaign was unsuccessful and evidenced by the fact that he received a small percentage (less than 20 percent) of the black vote and failed to mobilize a turnout of 50 percent or more of the Latino voting-age population. The goal of the paper is to draw possible implications for the theory of deracialization and the limitations of deracialization as an electoral strategy for candidates running for office in racially diverse cities.

The Limitations of the Deracialization Concept in the 2001 Los Angeles Mayoral Election

In June 2001, Mexican American candidate Antonio Villaraigosa and white candidate James Hahn competed in the Los Angeles mayoral runoff election. Both were liberal Democrats seeking office in a political climate characterized by nonpartisan mayoral elections, a majority Latino population, and a long history of successful deracialized campaigns and biracial coalition politics. From 1973 to 1993, former Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley utilized deracialized campaigns to develop a coalition of liberal white, African American, Latino, and Jewish voters. In June 2001, however, the coalitions supporting white candidate Hahn and Latino candidate Villaraigosa differed from the Bradley coalition. Whereas African Americans, moderate whites, and conservative whites preferred Hahn, the majority of Latinos and liberal Democrats voted for Villaraigosa. A Villaraigosa victory would have symbolized the evolving political power of Latinos both locally and nationally. In addition, Villaraigosa’s mayoralty would have resulted in an electoral and governing coalition dominated by white liberals and Latinos in Los Angeles. Although he won the plurality of votes in the primary, Villaraigosa lost the runoff after the Hahn campaign used racially-offensive ads to attack his integrity and character. We attempt to provide explanations for the loss of a Latino candidate to a white candidate who “played the race card” and the possible implications for the theory of deracialization. First, we examine the question, Why was Antonio Villaraigosa’s deracialized campaign unsuccessful? The concept of deracialization was developed to describe one useful method for developing citywide biracial and multiracial electoral coalitions. Candidates “deracialize” their campaigns by de-emphasizing racially-divisive issues in an attempt to garner crossover support from voters of other races while also receiving the lion’s share of support from voters of the candidate’s racial group. We hypothesize that Villaraigosa lost the runoff because he received a small percentage (less than 20 percent) of the black vote and failed to mobilize a turnout of 50 percent or more of the Latino voting-age population. We conclude with a discussion of the possible implications of Villaraigosa’s loss about the future usefulness of deracialized mayoral campaigns in racially-mixed cities.

The 2001 Los Angeles Mayoral Election: Implications for Deracialization and Biracial Coalition Theories

In this study, we analyze the voting behavior of Whites, African Americans, and Latinos during the 2001 Los Angeles mayoral race within the context of deracialization and biracial coalition theories. We examine two questions: Why did the majority of African American voters reject a liberal, multiracial coalition for a Latino candidate in favor of a coalition of conservative Whites and Asian Americans in support of a White candidate? What implications does this campaign have for deracialized campaigns, for multiracial coalitions, and generally for the role of race in American elections? We find that effective deracialized campaigns do not always result in victories. In June 2001, James Hahn ran a successful campaign by capitalizing upon the divisions among two groups, African Americans and Latinos, which traditionally have joined coalitions in support of liberal candidates.

Ethnicity is not Enough

The concept of deracialized electoral strategies has been applied primarily to African-American candidates running in majority white or racially mixed jurisdictions. The author explores the use of deracialized electoral strategies by victorious Latino city council candidates in Los Angeles. These candidates ran in Latino-majority city council districts, yet faced multiracial electorates. To build cross-racial support, the winning Latino candidates employed deracialized political styles, issue stances, and mobilization strategies. On the council, Latinos have pursued a largely deracialized agenda.

The Nature and Origins of Mass Opinion.John R. Zaller

Previous articleNext article No AccessBook ReviewsThe Nature and Origins of Mass Opinion. John R. Zaller Patricia A. HurleyPatricia A. Hurley Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by The Journal of Politics Volume 56, Number 2May, 1994 Sponsored by the Southern Political Science Association Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.2307/2132159 Views: 28Total views on this site Citations: 3Citations are reported from Crossref Copyright 1994 University of Texas PressPDF download Crossref reports the following articles citing this article:Allyson Shortle, Tyler Johnson Owning Immigration: Messenger Ethnicity, Issue Ownership, and Support for Latino Candidates, The Journal of Race, Ethnicity, and Politics 2, no.22 (Aug 2017): 233–259.https://doi.org/10.1017/rep.2017.7SCOTT ASHWORTH, ETHAN BUENO DE MESQUITA Is Voter Competence Good for Voters?: Information, Rationality, and Democratic Performance, American Political Science Review 108, no.33 (Aug 2014): 565–587.https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003055414000264Karen Callaghan, Frauke Schnell Who says what to whom: Why messengers and citizen beliefs matter in social policy framing, The Social Science Journal 46, no.11 (Dec 2019): 12–28.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.soscij.2008.12.001

Dynamics of Candidate Choice in a State Election

Previous articleNext article No AccessArticlesDynamics of Candidate Choice in a State ElectionKent L. Tedin and Richard W. MurrayKent L. Tedin Search for more articles by this author and Richard W. Murray Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by The Journal of Politics Volume 43, Number 2May, 1981 Sponsored by the Southern Political Science Association Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.2307/2130376 Views: 3Total views on this site Citations: 7Citations are reported from Crossref Copyright 1981 Southern Political Science AssociationPDF download Crossref reports the following articles citing this article:Shigeo Hirano, Gabriel S. Lenz, Maksim Pinkovskiy, James M. Snyder Voter Learning in State Primary Elections, American Journal of Political Science 59, no.11 (Mar 2014): 91–108.https://doi.org/10.1111/ajps.12093MATT A. BARRETO İSí Se Puede ! Latino Candidates and the Mobilization of Latino Voters, American Political Science Review 101, no.33 (Jul 2007): 425–441.https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003055407070293Stephen A. Nu?o Latino Mobilization and Vote Choice in the 2000 Presidential Election, American Politics Research 35, no.22 (Jul 2016): 273–293.https://doi.org/10.1177/1532673X06297032Matt A. Barreto, David L. Leal Latinos, Military Service, and Support for Bush and Kerry in 2004, American Politics Research 35, no.22 (Jul 2016): 224–251.https://doi.org/10.1177/1532673X06298077Shaun Bowler, Todd Donovan Information and opinion change on ballot propositions, Political Behavior 16, no.44 (Dec 1994): 411–435.https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01498825Jess Brown CONTEMPORARY INTERPARTY COMPETITION IN ALABAMA: A COUNTY-LEVEL ASSESSMENT, Southeastern Political Review 21, no.11 (Nov 2008): 171–197.https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1747-1346.1993.tb00358.xSamuel Long Abstracts of Documents in this Supplement, (Jan 1982): 1–576.https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-5214-1_1