Title

Beyond The Politics Of Race? Explaining The Vote In Recent Louisiana Gubernatorial Elections

Keywords

Louisiana Politics; Race/Ethnicity; Southern Politics; Voting Behavior

Abstract

In 2007, Bobby Jindal became the first nonwhite governor to be elected in Louisiana, and only the second nonwhite governor of a southern state. Jindal's election is interesting in that Louisiana has been afflicted by what many observers describe as racial backlash voting. Indeed, some have argued that such racial backlash explained Jindal's defeat in the 2003 gubernatorial election. This article utilizes aggregate-level data to examine whether racial backlash cost Jindal the 2003 election, and if so whether Jindal's victory in 2007 was attributable to the absence of such racial backlash. The findings suggest that racial backlash exerted a significant effect on Jindal's parish-by-parish vote in both the 2003 and 2007 gubernatorial contests. However, the findings also indicate that racial backlash alone was neither a sufficient explanation for Jindal's defeat in 2003 nor enough to deny him victory in 2007. © The Policy Studies Organization.

Publication Date

4-1-2010

Publication Title

Politics and Policy

Volume

38

Issue

2

Number of Pages

285-305

Document Type

Article

Personal Identifier

scopus

DOI Link

https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1747-1346.2010.00238.x

Socpus ID

77952219573 (Scopus)

Source API URL

https://api.elsevier.com/content/abstract/scopus_id/77952219573

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