Backing Barack Because He's Black: Racially Motivated Voting in the 2008 Election^*

Abstract

Objective. If racial considerations influenced the outcome of the 2008 presidential election, then how did they shape the campaign, why did race matter, and for whom were such considerations important? I hypothesize that various racial attitudes exert unique influences on voters' support of Obama and that the effects of these attitudes differ by race. Methods. Using a Time Magazine poll, I distinguish between “attitudes regarding Obama's ‘Blackness’” and “opinions about race relations,” and I examine such sentiments among White and African‐American respondents. Results. Regardless of race, Obama support was highest among voters who were “comfortable” with Black candidates. However, increased optimism with racial progress had no effect on Blacks' voting intentions, and it actually lowered Obama support among Whites. Conclusion. The conventional wisdom is that African Americans “backed Barack because he is Black”; I demonstrate that Obama's race mattered more to White voters than it did to Blacks.

Obama and 2012: Still a Racial Cost to Pay?

“…For the 2008 estimation, we estimated racial cost to Democratic candidate Obama was 5.04 percentage points of the total popular vote. Since our initial estimate, several other scholars have confirmed our finding of significant racial bias in the 2008 presidential vote (Block 2011;Donovan 2010;Highton 2011;Knuckey 2011;Piston 2010).…”

Racial stereotypes, racial context, and the 2008 presidential election

“…Tesler and Sears (2010, 6) note that the two sides of racialization -that is, the racially resentful opposition to and racially liberal support for Obama -resulted in a considerably larger influence of racial attitudes on the presidential vote in 2008 than any other campaign in modern history. Block Jr. (2011) supports this argument and shows that race actually affected white voters at greater levels than black voters. He finds that black voters were considerably less likely to emphasize race when casting their ballots for Obama compared to white voters who voted against Obama.…”

Role-Model-In-Chief: Understanding a Michelle Obama Effect

“…familiarity contributed to a rise in the favorability of men's racial attitudes and a decline in women's attitudes. Among African Americans, these differences of opinion, while analogous to the findings in Block (2011) andPew Research Center (2010) about whites being more optimistic than their black colleagues regarding Barack Obama's influence on U.S. race relations, are statistically nonsignificant. White men and women, however, were more sensitive to changes in policy familiarity levels.…”

“…The logic of black opinion stability, and the relative attitudinal volatility among white Americans, 6 suggests that the association between Michelle Obama's media activities and peoples' perceptions would be stronger for whites than for African 5. Specifically, Block (2011, figure 3) finds that the association between an individual's racial attitudes (in his case, opinions about Barack Obama's biracial heritage and beliefs about the state of U.S. race relations) and that person's assessment of the then-Illinois senator's electability was strongest among Whites. Such considerations matter less to African Americans, for the relationship between racial attitudes and vote choice was considerably weaker among members of this demographic group.…”