Take One for the Team? Limits of Shared Ethnicity and Candidate Preferences

• Author: Sylvia Manzano,Gabriel R. Sanchez
• Date: 01 September 2010
• Published date: 01 September 2010
• DOI: 10.1177/1065912909333130
• Subject Matter: Articles

Political Research Quarterly

63(3) 568 –580

© 2010 University of Utah

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DOI: 10.1177/1065912909333130

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Take One for the Team? Limits of

Shared Ethnicity and Candidate

Preferences

Sylvia Manzano1 and Gabriel R. Sanchez2

Abstract

This study tests the theory of politicized ethnic identity’s shaping Latino political behavior. The authors consider

whether candidate quality moderates the effects of political ethnic attachments on co-ethnic candidate preferences.

Ordered logistic regression models are developed to predict Latino voter preferences for co-ethnic candidates with

varied degrees of qualification. Candidate quality significantly mitigates collective ethnic political behavior, yet the

authors find Latinos with strong ethnic attachments remain inclined to prefer a co-ethnic even when less qualified than

a non-Latino candidate. Political ethnic identity theory is useful in explaining minority political behavior, but there are

boundaries to collective identity’s shaping political preferences.

Keywords

gender, race, ethnicity, identity, politics

While scholars debate the merits and effects of descriptive

representation on diverse populations, voters consistently

demonstrate their support for co-ethnic candidates. A sig-

nificant body of scholarly research highlights election

return patterns whereby the majority of voters, when

given a choice, cast ballots for candidates of shared eth-

nicity (Barreto 2007; Barreto, Villarreal, and Woods 2005;

Tate 2003; Kaufmann 2003a; Hill, Moreno, and Cue

2001; Terkildsen 1993). Debate ensues regarding the

causal factors for this empirical regularity that is typically

attributed to either co-ethnic affinity or partisanship, with

little attention to other potentially mitigating variables.

Minority candidates appear on the ballot most frequently

in elections in which partisanship is neutralized, in either

local nonpartisan races or primary contests. This reality

coupled with the general rise in candidate-centered cam-

paigns (Wattenberg 1991) calls for a more careful evalua-

tion of minority political behavior. Theories of ethnic

politics hold that collective group consciousness fosters a

sense of community loyalty that extends into the political

environment (Wolfinger 1965; Gurin, Miller, and Gurin

1980; Garcia 2003). We test this theory by asking whether

ethnic group politics is mitigated by candidate quality, an

important variable in the political behavior literature that

has heretofore been omitted from the minority political

behavior research. Pointed survey items are used to test

the influence of ethnic group consciousness on individual

voter preferences when faced with candidates of

varied quality and ethnicity. This study advances the

research in racial and ethnic politics by exploring the bound-

aries of ethnic attachments and incorporating the role of

candidate quality on vote choice.

Data from the 2004 National Survey of Latinos: Poli-

tics and Civic Participation, conducted by the Pew His-

panic Center and the Kaiser Family Foun dation,1 affords

the opportunity to explore Latino voter preferences in

different scenarios: (1) when a Latino candidate and a

non-Latino challenger are equally qualified and (2) when

a Latino candidate is less qualified than a non-Latino

opponent. Candidate preferences in these different con-

texts are modeled as function of group identity to test the

extent to which ethnic consciousness and ethnic attach-

ments account for co-ethnic candidate support. Including

candidate quality in the theoretical conceptualization and

empirical models offers a more complete interpretation

of minority political behavior than most studies have pre-

sented. The analysis shows the effects of ethnic politics

are significantly tempered by candidate quality such that

1Texas A&M University, College Station

2University of New Mexico, Albuquerque

Corresponding Authors:

Sylvia Manzano, Assistant Professor, Texas A&M University

Email: smanzano@politics.tamu.edu.

Gabriel R. Sanchez, Assistant Professor, University of New Mexico

Email: sanchezg@unm.edu.

PRQ333130.indd 568 03/08/2010 8:17:33 PM