Many of Us Are Not Like the Others: Country of Origin and Latino Voting Behavior in the United States

Abstract

In the U.S., Latinos are often treated as a monolithic voting bloc, but this approach overlooks significant variation in political behavior across subgroups from different countries of origin. This paper explores the role of country of origin in shaping the partisanship and electoral choices of U.S. Latinos, arguing that national origin influences party identification and voting behavior. Using data from the Collaborative Multi-Racial Post-Election Survey (CMPS), spanning elections from 2008 to 2020, we examine how Latino voters from different countries differ in their partisanship and support for Republican and Democratic candidates. Our findings reveal substantial variation in vote choice and partisan identification based on country of origin. We employ genetic matching to control for key covariates, revealing that aggregate country-of-origin differences show up repeatedly in elections over time. These results suggest that aggregating Latinos into a single voting bloc obscures meaningful political diversity and that a country-of-origin approach offers valuable insights into Latino electoral behavior.

Francesco Bromo

Postdoctoral Research Fellow

My research primarily focuses on political institutions, legislative and executive politics, policymaking, representation, and constitutions.