The election outcome, coupled with the likely growth of the Latino voter population from 11 percent of the eligible electorate in 2012 to 16 percent in 2030, sparked considerable debate on the future of party politics in the United States (Taylor et al. The 2012 presidential election underscored Latinos’ increasing political clout, an election year in which they were part of a nontraditional coalition of young people, women, Asians, and blacks that provided a decisive victory to Democrat Barack Obama over his Republican opponent Mitt Romney. electorate, and their political proclivities matter. Latinos are a growing segment of the U.S. Latino support for government-provided health insurance in 2012 consistently increased support for the Democratic Party. Finally, some support was evident for an instrumental account. Relatively few Latinos had worked on a campaign or given money to a candidate somewhat larger numbers had tried to convince others about a candidate or worn a button or displayed a sticker. A strong partisan preference increased political campaign activity, though this activity level was modest overall. Those who identify strongly as Latinos and see pervasive discrimination against Latinos are the strongest Democrats, a process that further intensified over the course of the 2012 election. Hispanic and partisan identities have converged among Latinos in the United States to create a large number of Latino Democrats regardless of citizenship status. In analysis of data from two large national datasets, the 2012 Latino Immigrant National Election Study and American National Election Study focused on Latino immigrants and citizens respectively, we find strong support for the expressive identity explanation.

In this research, we contrast two explanations for Latinos’ Democratic proclivities: an instrumental explanation grounded in ideological policy preferences and an expressive identity account based on the defense of Latino identity and status. Little research, however, has delved into the origins of this preference. The majority of Latinos in the United States identify with the Democratic Party, a tendency with broad political implications as Latinos become an increasingly large segment of the population.

Hispanic outlook identity