WASHINGTON, May 9, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- White working-class voters who reported feelings of cultural dislocation or favored deportation of illegal immigrants were more than three times more likely to support Trump, according to new analysis of a fall PRRI/The Atlantic survey released today. The influence of economic factors is both less powerful and more complex.
After Republican identity, cultural displacement and concerns about immigrants were the strongest independent predictors of presidential vote among white working-class voters. White working-class voters who say they often feel like a stranger in their own land and who believe the U.S. needs protecting against foreign influence were 3.5 times more likely to favor Trump than those who did not share these concerns. And white working-class voters who favored deporting immigrants living in the country illegally were 3.3 times more likely to express a preference for Trump than those who did not.
"These new results show that feelings of cultural displacement and a desire for cultural protection, more than economic hardship, drove white working-class voters to support Trump in 2016," says PRRI CEO Robert P. Jones. "The findings cast new light on how Trump's 'Make American Great Again!' slogan tapped these fears and anxieties and a deep sense of nostalgia for a previous time in the country when white conservative Christians perceived that they had more power and influence."
Economic factors were comparatively less strong predictors of support for Trump. White working-class voters who reported feelings of economic fatalism—defined as those who believe that a college education is a risky gamble—were about twice as likely as those who believe college is a smart investment in the future to have favored Trump. Notably, white working-class voters who reported simply being in poor financial shape were nearly twice as likely as those who reported being in better financial shape to support Hillary Clinton.
"White working-class Americans display a strong sense of economic fatalism, which influenced their vote choice in 2016," says PRRI Research Director Dan Cox. "A majority of white working-class Americans believe that college education is more of a risk than an investment in the future, a view that is at odds not only with white college-educated Americans, but with black and Hispanic Americans as well. And white working-class voters who lost confidence in the education system as a path to upward mobility were much more likely to support Trump in the 2016 election."
In addition to factors influencing white working-class support for Trump, the new report also provides a comprehensive profile of the white working class, including demographics, political and religious affiliation, levels of civic and religious engagement, measures of economic well-being, socioeconomic mobility, and mental health.
The full findings, topline questionnaire, complete methodology, and additional analysis are available here: https://www.prri.org/research/white-working-class-attitudes-economy-trade-immigration-election-donald-trump/
SOURCE PRRI; The Atlantic
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