American Government

Find Table 6.3 on p. 136 and answer the following questions in relation to the analysis of voter groups in the 2020 presidential election between Joe Biden and Donald Trump below.

1. Was the Democrat Biden’s performance among Hispanic voters in 2020 consistent or inconsistent with the historical pattern of Hispanic voting? Explain.

2. Was the Republican Trump’s performance among Protestants in 2020 consistent or inconsistent with the historical pattern of Protestant voting? Explain.

3. Looking back over past presidential elections, have Democrats tended to attract a higher percentage of female or male voters? Did that pattern hold in the 2020 election? Explain.

Trump made gains among Hispanic voters. Even as Biden held on to a majority of Hispanic voters in 2020, Trump made gains among this group overall. There was a wide educational divide among Hispanic voters: Trump did substantially better with those without a college degree than college-educated Hispanic voters (41% vs. 30%).

Apart from the small shift among Hispanic voters, Joe Biden’s electoral coalition looked much like Hillary Clinton’s, with Black, Hispanic and Asian voters and those of other races casting about four-in-ten of his votes. Black voters remained overwhelmingly loyal to the Democratic Party, voting 92%-8% for Biden.

Biden made gains with men, while Trump improved among women, narrowing the gender gap. The gender gap in the 2020 election was narrower than it had been in 2016, both because of gains that Biden made among men and because of gains Trump made among women. In 2020, men were almost evenly divided between Trump and Biden, unlike in 2016 when Trump won men by 11 points. Trump won a slightly larger share of women’s votes in 2020 than in 2016 (44% vs. 39%), while Biden’s share among women was nearly identical to Clinton’s (55% vs. 54%).

Biden grew his support with some religious groups while Trump held his ground. Both Trump and Biden held onto or gained with large groups within their respective religious coalitions. Trump’s strong support among White evangelical Protestants ticked up (77% in 2016, 84% in 2020) while Biden got more support among atheists and agnostics than did Clinton in 2016.