Why Do Some Union Members Vote Republican? The Role of Workplace Political Discussion

Bibliographic Data

ID7363395
AuthorsDavid Macdonald (0000-0002-8820-6067, Department of Political Science, University of Florida Assistant Professor, , Gainesville, FL, corresponding author)
Year2025
Volume89
Issue3
Pages784-811
Publication date2025-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenuePublic Opinion Quarterly (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0033-362X • E-ISSN: 1537-5331
PublisherOxford University Press (OUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1093/poq/nfaf042
OpenAlexW4416054564
LanguageEN
References cited53

Labor union members are more likely to vote than their nonunionized counterparts, and when they do vote, are more likely to support the Democratic Party. However, a sizable minority of union members vote Republican. This is puzzling, given that the national Republican Party has long been hostile toward organized labor. Extant research has clearly demonstrated that union and nonunion members differ in their voting behavior, but we know little about such variation among union members. I explore this latter phenomenon here, arguing that the frequency of workplace political discussion plays an important role in shaping how labor union members vote. I test this with data from the 2004 National Annenberg Election Survey (NAES). Overall, I find that workplace discussion of politics is positively and significantly associated with the probability that labor union members vote Democrat. This appears to occur via a “learning” mechanism, in which greater workplace discussion of politics leads union members to recognize which candidate is more “prolabor.” Overall, these findings help us better understand the consequences of the workplace, political discussion, and the politics of American labor unions

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