The Democratic Majority and the 2016 American Presidential Election: Feminist Political Behavior Across Multiple Axes of Identity

• Published date: 01 March 2024
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/10659129231213014
• Author: Evelyn M. Simien,Thomas J. Hayes,Carolyn Conway
• Date: 01 March 2024
• Subject Matter: Articles

Article

Political Research Quarterly

2024, Vol. 77(1) 371–385

© The Author(s) 2023

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DOI: 10.1177/10659129231213014

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The Democratic Majority and the 2016

American Presidential Election: Feminist

Political Behavior Across Multiple Axes of

Identity

Evelyn M. Simien, Thomas J. Hayes, and Carolyn Conway

Abstract

Scholarship on women voters using an intersectional lens has shown feminists and women of color within the

Democratic Party to be a powerful force in electoral politics—specif‌ically, Black and Latina women—are the most

reliable voters. Combined, they represent the majority of women voters in the Democratic Party, and they have shown

themselves to be a sizeable voting bloc in the last two American presidential election cycles. Using data from the 2016

American National Election Studies (ANES), we demonstrate important differences in support for the Democratic

candidate (Hillary Clinton) between feminists and women of color—Black and Latina—underscoring the need to study

gender, race, and ethnicity simultaneously (versus independently) when they are co-constitutive identity categories. By

examining women and the groups the Clinton campaign appealed most to—feminists, Black, and Latina women—we add

to the scholarship in political science that followed this unique election and demonstrate the importance of feminist

identity for vote choice and various modes of political behavior for women voters. Knowing and understanding how

women respond through affect and how this affect can result in political behaviors will help determine what it takes for

future historic f‌irst candidates to emerge successful.

Keywords

democratic party, feminist identity, intersectionality, 2016 presidential election, political behavior

Democratic leaders have witnessed considerable growth

in their electoral base across various racial, gender, and

ethnic groups (Grossman and Hopkins 2016). Although

minority voters and women once lagged in turnout, over

time both the size of respective demographic populations

and their practice of voting increased with the help of

mass voter registration drives and other grassroots efforts

to get out the vote. Much of the extant literature has

established that women and racial minorities are the

majority of Democratic identif‌iers, and women in par-

ticular have been responsible for a partisan gender gap in

American presidential elections since the 1980s (Bejarano

2014;Carroll 1999;Elder 2021;Junn 2017;Lien 1998;

Whitaker 2008).

Political scientists devoted considerable time and at-

tention to the gender gap in 2016, given the historic nature

of the campaign. The gender gap for Republican candidate

Donald Trump opposite his Democratic opponent Hillary

Clinton was 11 percentage points, with 41% of women

and 52% of men casting a vote in Trump’s favor (Cassese

and Barnes 2019;Frasure-Yokely 2018;Junn 2017;Junn

and Masuoka 2020). As in past elections, a majority of

women favored the Democratic candidate, and a majority

of men supported the Republican candidate. While this

data supports the prevailing notion that women constitute

the majority of Democratic identif‌iers, it effectively

conceals the fact that, among white women, an estimated

52% voted for Trump compared to the 43% who sup-

ported Clinton (Cassese and Barnes 2019;Frasure-Yokely

2018;Junn 2017;Junn and Masuoka 2020).

University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT, USA

Corresponding Author:

Evelyn M. Simien, Department of Political Science, University of

Connecticut, 365 Fairf‌ield Way, Unit 1024, Storrs, CT 06269, USA.

Email: evelyn.simien@uconn.edu