RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 The Hispanic Immigrant Voter and the Classic American Voter: Presidential Support in the 2012 Election
JF RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences
FD Russell Sage Foundation
SP 165
OP 181
DO 10.7758/RSF.2016.2.3.09
VO 2
IS 3
A1 Michael S. Lewis-Beck
A1 Mary Stegmaier
YR 2016
UL http://www.rsfjournal.org/content/2/3/165.abstract
AB In their classic 1960 work, Angus Campbell and his colleagues offer a model to explain political behavior. They posit a funnel of causality, whereby the causal flow moved from remote long-term forces, such as socio-demographics and party identification, to more immediate short-term forces, such as issues and candidates, finally arriving at the vote choice itself. This explanation has withstood the test of time in studies of the United States and other democracies. The question at hand in this article is how Latin American immigrants comport themselves in the national political environment of the United States. Can the political preferences of Hispanic immigrants be explained pretty much the way the political preferences of native-born Americans can be explained? In other words, does the funnel of causality apply to them? Our findings, based on analysis of 2012 American National Election Study and Latino Immigrant National Election Study survey data, indicate that it does.