You Voted for Who? Explaining Support for Trump among Racial and Ethnic Minorities

Abstract

Abstract This research investigates why racial and ethnic minority group members would elect to vote for Donald Trump, a president/candidate that has often castigated and maligned minorities through the use of racist, nativist, and xenophobic rhetoric. We look to Terror Management Theory, religion, and education to explain this puzzling behavior. We analyze survey data representing a national convenience sample of college students collected in the fall of 2020 in our test of expectations. Our findings underscore the need to investigate Terror Management Theory as an explanation for minority support of candidates that are seemingly contrary to group advancement.