Beyond the veil: The electoral uniformity and political heterogeneity of African American voters.

摘要

For more than five decades, African American voters have overwhelmingly supported Democratic candidates in presidential elections. This electoral uniformity occurs despite demonstrable political diversity among African American voters. Previous scholarship has focused on the cause of this monolithic voting behavior and modeled descriptive frameworks based on racial solidarity, social bonds and inclusivity, and progressive policy positions on racial equality. Though there have been some attempts to discern the extent to which policy issues and voter attributes affect African American voting behavior, this electorate's political heterogeneity evinced in subgroup deviations from group norms deserves more attention. This study examines the influences on African American voting behavior that are often masked by party and racial group heuristics. I argue that the diversity of political views held by African American subgroups exists beyond a partisan veil of the bloc's electoral homogeneity. Using the factorial survey method, I find that while political party is the most dominant factor in the political judgments of African Americans, there are significant subgroup variations based on gender, income, and frequency of church attendance. Further, I find incongruence between the factors voters indicate are the most important and those factors that have the largest effect on their voting choices. This study evinces the coexistence of political heterogeneity and electoral uniformity among African American voters. It also offers new insights into the prioritization of electoral factors, ranging from the civil rights statutes to the African American unemployment rate, among this voting bloc.