Diverse Segments of the U.S. Electorate Delivered President-Elect Biden’s Victory
The 2020 U.S. Elections saw 66 percent of the voting-eligible public cast a ballot, more than any other contest in 120 years. President-elect Joe Biden set a new record with the highest popular vote in history with more than 80,026,000 votes (51 percent of the total). While a narrative focused on the nominal uptick in minority votes for outgoing President Trump has emerged, the cumulative effect of enhanced voter turnout in marginalized communities—adversely affected by inflammatory political rhetoric and prejudicial policies since 2016—has been largely overlooked. Significantly, racially, ethnically, and religiously diverse groups delivered Biden’s victory. In doing so, they set a positive precedent here and across the Atlantic. Essentially, strong voter turnout maximized electoral effect and political capital, respectively and cumulatively.
Marginalized Communities
Arguably, political mobilization among African Americans, Latinos, Native Americans, Jews, Muslim Americans, and Asian Americans facilitated Biden’s victory. Historically, African Americans lean Democratic, but strong voter turnout is critical to ensuring desired electoral outcomes. Similar to previous presidential elections, amid racial injustices and social unrest, African Americans overwhelmingly cast their ballot for Biden. Indeed, 87 percent of Black voters favored the former vice president, while 18 percent went to Trump. Analogous to their Black counterparts, Latino voters, who also lean Democrat traditionally, voted for Biden by a 2-to-1 margin across the country with increased political participation. Approximately 8.6 million Latinos, the nation’s largest share of nonwhite voters, voted early, and roughly 2.4 million were first-time and newly registered voters. Overall, 20 million Latinos, or 64 percent of the community’s eligible voters, cast a ballot this election. For the sake of perspective, less than 50 percent typically engaged in prior cycles. Significantly, the coronavirus not only disproportionately affected the minority group due to myriad structural factors, but Trump repeatedly employed divisive rhetoric and politics that debased and dehumanized them.
Similar to their Black and Latino compatriots, amid the pandemic’s disproportionate effect, Native Americans also increased their political engagement this election season. In Arizona, New Mexico, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Montana, Native voters overwhelmingly cast their ballots for Biden. In Arizona, indigenous mobilization helped flip the state blue—the first time in 24 years—to deliver key Electoral College votes. Native Americans makeup 6 percent of the state’s population—approximately 424,955 people—with roughly 67,000 registered voters from the Navajo Nation alone. For the sake of perspective, indigenous voters cast approximately 60,000 ballots this election cycle, compared with just under 42,500 in 2016. According to some reports, Biden won Arizona with just over 11,000 votes. Moreover, the Native vote was also critical in Wisconsin where Biden won by 20,000 votes.
Additionally, the majority of Asian American voters—63 percent—cast their ballot for Biden with 31 percent voting for Trump. Akin to other minority groups, Asian Americans, who have experienced intensified racism and xenophobia since the onset of the coronavirus, lean Democratic historically. The group’s political support translated into key electoral victories such as Nevada, a swing state where 58 percent of Asian Americans supported Biden. Further, Biden also won the Jewish American vote with more than 77 percent favoring the former vice president. In 2018, the historically marginalized group saw the worst anti-Semitic attack on American soil when a shooter espousing white nationalist ideology murdered eleven worshipers at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh. Their vote for Biden is consistent with previous voting patterns supporting Democratic presidential candidates spanning decades.
Lastly, similar to their Jewish and Asian counterparts, the majority of the Muslim American electorate—64 percent—also voted for Biden. This community also saw increased political engagement this election cycle, successfully doubling the number of registered voters since 2012. Following his ascension to the Oval Office, outgoing President Trump signed executive orders banning immigrants from seven Muslim-majority countries. In doing so, he acted on his campaign promise calling for a “total and complete shutdown” of Muslims entering the U.S. Interestingly, Muslim American potential political power rests in the fact that they are concentrated in presidential battleground states. The Public Religion Research Institute found that some of the highest populations of Muslims citizens are in Ohio, Michigan, Georgia, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, and North Carolina. For the sake of perspective, there are an estimated 15,000 registered Muslim voters in Pennsylvania and 25,000 in Florida, for instance.
Related Insights
Arguably the political behavior of these historically marginalized groups in response to racism, xenophobia, and intolerance sets a positive precedent to be followed here and across the Atlantic. Still, there are several additional insights worth noting.
First, across communities, activists argue that the Democratic Party’s outreach is inadequate and not particularly responsive to group interests or priorities. This may, in turn, help account for that nominal uptick in minority voters for Trump. The respective and cumulative effect of minority political engagement this election cycle demonstrates the critical role they can and will play in elections, on a local, state, and national level. As such, more meaningful investment in these communities is necessary.
Second, these communities are rejecting tokenized minority representation and demanding inclusion from the incoming administration, including high-level political appointments. Additionally, the Biden-Harris administration should reinvigorate White House initiatives that provide these communities an opportunity to engage meaningfully on social, political, economic, and other relevant issues.
Lastly, all those with political aspirations should be guided accordingly: Strong minority turnout can translate into electoral victory or defeat.