Immigrant and Native: Mexican American Presidential Vote Choice Across Immigrant Generations

The Mexican American electorate includes large numbers of immigrants as well as people of later generations. In this article, we test whether cross-generational acculturation shapes the ways in which Mexican American voters selected between John Kerry and George Bush in the 2004 presidential electio...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:American politics research 2007-03, Vol.35 (2), p.176-201
Main Authors: DeSipio, Louis, Uhlaner, Carole Jean
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Acculturation
Church & state
Dummy
Elections
Generational Differences
Generations
Grandchildren
Hispanic Americans
Immigrants
Interaction
Mexican Americans
Noncitizens
Partisanship
Political Behavior
Political campaigns
Presidential elections
Presidents
Religion
Residence
Voters
Voting
Voting Behavior
Citations: Items that this one cites
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Summary:The Mexican American electorate includes large numbers of immigrants as well as people of later generations. In this article, we test whether cross-generational acculturation shapes the ways in which Mexican American voters selected between John Kerry and George Bush in the 2004 presidential election. Although change across immigrant generations has long been a critical question in American political behavior, it is only with the current wave of immigrants and their U.S.-born children and grandchildren that it is possible to measure the relationship between acculturation and vote choice. With generational replacement, changes in the dynamics of vote choice across immigrant generations could herald long-term changes in the mechanisms of vote choice. We find that generation does shape Mexican American vote choice, both directly—in the simple measure of the generational dummy variables—and in the interaction between generation and partisanship, issue evaluation, religion, and state of residence.
ISSN:1532-673X
1552-3373
DOI:10.1177/1532673X06296197