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Democracy Fund
·
2024

Pushed and Pulled: How Attitudes About Race and Immigration are Settling and Shifting After Trump

Key Finding

Longitudinal panel data (2011–2024) shows attitudes on race and immigration shift “thermostatically” against the sitting president’s policies rather than trending linearly — a solid public-opinion baseline.

About this research

Published by Democracy Fund and authored by political scientists John Sides (Vanderbilt), Michael Tesler (UC Irvine), and Robert Griffin (Democracy Fund), this data brief draws on the VOTER Survey, a longitudinal online panel fielded with YouGov since 2011 (most recently 6,000 adults surveyed February–March 2024), corroborated with Cooperative Election Study and Gallup data. It finds that attitudes on race and immigration have moved in opposite directions depending on which party holds the White House — immigration views shifted rightward under Biden after moving leftward under Trump — a “thermostatic” pattern the authors argue explains opinion change better than a simple linear trend.
Read the full report
Format

Data Brief

Year

2024

Published by

Democracy Fund (VOTER Survey), authors John Sides (Vanderbilt), Michael Tesler (UC Irvine), Robert Griffin (Democracy Fund)

Category

Civic Health & Polarization Data

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