BRIDGING THE GAP: A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF AMERICAN LATINO POLITICAL PARTICIPATION

Abstract

The current literature generally accepts the premise that Latino Americans deserve political categorization and study as a separate entity from other ethnic or minority groups. However, the study of Latino political behavior itself is one of fairly recent origins. This thesis seeks to understand differences between Latinos and Non-Latinos with regard to two facets of political behavior: voting and donating in presidential election years. To accomplish this end, I fielded an original 2000-respondent national survey and conducted interviews of campaign professionals to develop a case study of Latino participation in Texas. After analyzing the quantitative and qualitative data, several findings emerge. First, even after controlling for predictable demographic factors, including annual household income, age, party support, employment status, and registration status, Latinos remain significantly less likely to vote than Non-Latinos. Second, this difference is driven by Mexican Americans; the other Latino/Hispanic groups did not experience any significant differences in voting behavior than Non- Latinos. Third, and somewhat surprisingly, Latinos are no less likely to donate than Non- Latinos, although both groups are more likely to donate if they voted. Fourth, there appear to be different motivating factors for Latinos and Non-Latinos in terms of donating behavior. While Latinos tend to be influenced by a personal connection to a candidate, Non-Latinos are more likely to donate money to candidates or to political causes due to having similar ideologies. The findings have relevance to multiple policy issues relevant to Latino political engagement, including voter registration laws.