Embattlement and Resilience Among White Evangelical Democrats

• Published date: 01 September 2024
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/10659129241253602
• Author: Levi G. Allen
• Date: 01 September 2024
• Subject Matter: Articles

Article

Political Research Quarterly

2024, Vol. 77(3) 978–991

© The Author(s) 2024

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DOI: 10.1177/10659129241253602

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Embattlement and Resilience Among

White Evangelical Democrats

Levi G. Allen

1



Abstract

Why do individuals defect from the partisan pull of their social identities? Previous explanations of social sorting often

neglect to account for these defectors whose partisanship cannot be explained by simply tallying up their social identities.

I call these individuals political heretics. To better understand this phenomenon, I leverage white evangelicals, one of the

most socially and politically sorted groups in the United States, who support the Democratic Party as a case study. I f‌ind

that, based upon 68 face-to-face interviews across seven churches, two explanations emerge that explain their her esy.

First, some f‌ind their way into Democratic congregations that shield them from the pressure exerted by residing in a

religious tradition that has undergone extensive political sorting. Second, some choose to remain in predominately

Republicans churches and offset the cost of this political pressure with some other benef‌it. However, for those who

choose the latter, electing to remain in a church where they are in the political minority, they face signif‌icant headwinds

to either update their political preferences or leave. Despite these embattled defectors cho osing to remain in Republican

congregations, the pressure of polarization may eventually force them out.

Keywords

religion and politics, qualitative methods, social identity, partisanship, political behavio r

Introduction

“Social sorting is incomplete, however, and signif‌icant

portions of the electorate do not f‌it neatly into these sorting

prof‌iles. For example, about one in f‌ive women identify with

the Republican Party. A similar proportion of white evan-

gelicals identify with the Democratic Party”(Cassese 2020,

170, emphasis added).

“I get very much –I was actually reading something just this

morning about what it is like to live labeled as a heretic. It can

be one of the loneliest, scariest places to f‌ind yourself.”–

Elmer

1

, Respondent #43

It is broadly recognized that American society is

sorted, by which scholars mean that Americans’social

identities have become increasingly aligned with their

partisan identities (Mason 2018). The days of the con-

servative Democrat and the liberal Republican are largely

over as conservatives have sorted into the Republican

Party and liberals into the Democratic Party (Fiorina

2017).

Beyond these political implications, sorting has be-

come so pervasive that many argue it has created two

Americas characterized by different political views and

social habits, a “Prius vs. Pickup”world as Hetherington

and Weiler (2018) describe it. Even objects not tradi-

tionally associated with politics have become so, such as

having a tattoo or piercings being linked to the Demo-

cratic Party or wearing boots and watching NASCAR

associated with the Republican Party (Hiaeshutter-Rice,

Soroka, and Neuner 2021); sitting Members of Congress

have even f‌loated the idea of a “national divorce”due to

these “irreconcilable differences.”

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While partisan identif‌ication has long been concep-

tualized as a social identity (Campbell et al. 1960), what is

a new development is that so many salient social

identities—such as one’s race, religion, or occupation—

line up with the categories of partisan identif‌ication. This

paints a bleak picture for American democracy, one of a

nation that is divided over fundamental values and

1

Indiana State University, Terre Haute, IN, USA

Corresponding Author:

Levi G. Allen, Department of Political Science, Indiana State University,

316 Holmstedt Hall, 620 Chestnut Street, Terre Haute, IN 47807, USA.

Email: levi.allen@indstate.edu