Attitudes toward environmental regulation vary by race/ethnicity among US Republicans

Abstract

U.S. Republicans have low support for environmental regulations, but recent studies suggest this support varies by race and ethnicity. Here, we extend this work by further examining racial/ethnic differences within Republicans in two datasets. The first was a primary study and probability sample of U.S. Republicans (N = 2395). The second was a secondary data analysis of the Cooperative Election Study (2014–2022; N = 123,133 Republicans). We tested the association between race/ethnicity and attitudes towards various environmental regulations, adjusting for relevant covariates. Across both datasets, we found that White Republicans consistently had the lowest support for environmental regulations compared to Asian, Black, and Hispanic Republicans. In the CES dataset, Asian Republicans tended to have the strongest support followed by Black, Hispanic, and White Republicans, respectively. This order remained across most outcomes though the pattern of significance varied. For example, Asian Republicans' regulation support was consistently significantly higher than Hispanic and White Republicans' but only sometimes significantly higher than Black Republicans’ support. The findings highlight the important variation in environmental policy attitudes that exists within Republicans, specifically across racial/ethnic groups and type of regulation.