Race and Ideology

Yet another report on ideology came out today, this time from Gallup, showing that there are more conservatives than liberals in every state. Republicans often look at these and wonder why they're not winning more.

Part of the reason is that Democrats have about a 30 point identification advantage right now among moderates. But another reason is that black voters, although generally perceived to be liberals, do not tend to identify themselves that way.

Consider these figures on the ideological identification of African Americans in our polls over the last month:

State	Liberal	Moderate	Conservative
National	22	50	28
North Carolina	19	62	18
Virginia	27	55	18
New Jersey	12	77	12
Louisiana	28	43	29

Nationally there are actually more blacks who identify as conservatives than liberals, and the numbers break down pretty evenly in the individual states. Black voters may tend toward the liberal side on most individual issues and certainly vote for more liberal candidates close to 100% of the time, but they don't think of themselves as liberals. That's one reason why these ideology numbers don't go that far in explaining voting behavior.