Our special issue on the 2016 U.S. presidential election includes 8 original research articles and an accompanying set of “Words of Wisdom” that together illuminate important dynamics of the election through the lens of race and ethnicity, gender, religion and age. The articles offer unique perspectives on voting behavior, public opinion, and campaign strategy both through their analysis of the newest and most comprehensive data available on 2016 as well as through their skepticism about standard assumptions and conclusions drawn by the conventional wisdom in political science. Together the articles and commentaries shine a bright light on the inadequacies of longstanding and perhaps outdated analytical approaches to understanding U.S. voting behavior.
What sets these eight articles apart from exiting studies that seek to explain Donald Trump's victory over Hillary Clinton is the way they focus on various groups within the electorate that were otherwise ignored, both before and now even after the election. These include a pair of articles by Christian Phillips and Lorrie Frasure-Yokley examining the intersection of racial and ethnic identity with gender. These research articles are followed by commentary from Jennifer Merolla and Claudia Sandoval. In the third research article, Vladimir Medenica reminds readers that while Millennials overall voted in majority support of the Democratic Party candidate, in contrast young whites in this age group supported Donald Trump. Debbie Schildkraut provides her “Words of Wisdom” on how to think about age and voting. Next, in her incisive analysis of evangelicals, Janelle Wong demonstrates that whites are alone among this group in strong support for the Republican Party candidate, while in contrast evangelical minority voters do not follow a similar pattern in voting. Christian Grose provides commentary on this increasingly important angle of U.S. voting behavior. Considering the impact of religion from a different perspective, Lajevardi and Oskooii analyze the impact of anti-Muslim attitudes on political behavior and attitudes. Michael Tesler contributes his “Words of Wisdom” on Islamaphobia in the U.S. electorate. The three articles that follow include important analyses of African American, Latino, and Asian American mobilization by Christopher Towler and Christopher Parker; Ricardo Ramirez, Romelia Solano, and Brian Wilcox-Archuletta; and Natalie Masuoka, Hahrie Han, Vivien Leung and Bang Quan Zheng. Their research articles are illuminated by commentary from LaGina Gause, Matt Barreto, and Pei-te Lien.
It is sincere our hope that these innovative and important research efforts will stimulate new insights on this most recent election an in so doing, help political scientists move beyond the standard explanations and conventional wisdom that were so lacking in clarifying what happened in 2016.
