You can download below a copy of my most recent CV:

Here is a brief selection of recent research papers I have worked on. About one third of the scholarship I produce through the REPS Lab consists of active collaborations with talented undergraduate students at UCLA, many of them in political science, psychology, or other analog disciplines. The papers below include some of these collaborations.

In Their Own Words: An In-Depth Look at Ideological Sorting, Partisan Polarization, and Latino Republicans Under review (with Rodolfo Solís, UCLA Doctoral Candidate in Political Science)

*For a copy of this paper, please contact the lead author, Rodolfo, at rsolis1220@g.ucla.edu

Recent elections have witnessed over one-third of Latino voters support nativist Republican, Donald J. Trump, which complicates conventional understandings of Latino partisanship. Several scholars and political observers attribute this support to weakened racial identity, limited ties to immigration, or conservative values. Yet these explanations overlook the profound influence that greater ideological sorting and political polarization at the mass level might have on some Latinos’ intense identification as Republicans in this era. To probe and refine this ideological sorting explanation, we draw on a purposive sample of seventy-five (N=75) in-depth interviews with Latino Republicans from five (5) South Texas counties that heavily voted for Donald Trump in 2016, 2020, and 2024. Our analyses of these conversations highlight the strong viability of an ideological sorting explanation for Latino Republican partisanship and support for nativist candidates, while uncovering scattered evidence for the role of weakened racial identity, limited ties to immigration, and conservative values. Specifically, our conversations with these individuals reveal that as Republicans continue to mobilize around culture war issues—e.g., immigration, immigration, and LGBTQ rights—many of these individuals find greater alignment between their socially conservative values and the current political agenda pursued by the Republican party. Moreover, our data suggest that partisan polarization—where various social identities (e.g., religion, class, nation) are becoming sharply associated with each party—further contributes to some Latinos’ embrace of the Republican Party. We discuss how our results can help reinvigorate conceptual, theoretical, and empirical understandings of U.S. Latino politics going forward.

Why are Some People of Color Embracing Republicans? A Temporal Look at Three “Crowning Postures” Among Asian, Black, and Latino Adults in a 2024 Panel Under Review (with Emily Ortiz, Ramona Alhambra, and Andrew Engelhardt)

Current theories of partisanship among people of color (PoC) emphasize how racial group interests (African Americans), issue positions (Latinos), and migratory experiences (Asian Americans) promote strong pro-Democratic orientations. But these explanations overlook why some PoC embrace Republicans, whose policies undermine many PoC’s well-being. We focus on upstream sources of partisanship relevant to all PoC. Specifically, we develop a compact, unified theory of PoC partisanship from three fundamental psychological predispositions: social dominance orientation, system justification, and authoritarianism. While often used to explain White Americans’ opinions, these “crowning postures” also clarify why some PoC support racially oppressive actors and systems. Analyzing panel data from the 2024 presidential campaign, we find these postures intensified Republican partisanship among some Black, Latino, and Asian adults, although not all predispositions influenced each group’s choices. We conclude that PoC’s Republican partisanship is partly explained by deep psychological motives triggered through Democrats’ and Republicans’ increased competition on culture war themes, including race, sexual orientation, and religion.

Solidarity as a Bridge: How Shared Discrimination Indirectly Shapes Electoral Intentions Among People of Color (with Kasheena Rogbeer)

Accumulating research shows that a heightened sense of shared discrimination between Black, Asian, and Latino Americans produces greater solidarity between people of color (PoC), which then increases their support for pro-minority policies. This paper investigates whether solidarity’s downstream effects spill over to vote intentions—a key precursor to voter mobilization. We tested this proposition across three large parallel survey experiments with Black (N=850), Asian (N=850), and Latino (N=850) adults conducted three weeks prior to the 2024 U.S. presidential contest between Democrat Kamala Harris and Republican Donald J. Trump. While we find no consistent direct effect of shared discrimination on intended vote choice, our analyses reveal that PoC solidarity mediates the effect of shared discrimination on intended votes for Harris, though this relationship varies by racially stigmatized group. Specifically, shared discrimination most strongly increased solidarity among Black respondents, with heightened solidarity being most strongly associated with downstream vote intentions among Asian and Latino respondents. A battery of sensitivity analyses further establish that solidarity’s downstream influence is highly robust to confounding. These findings suggest that shared discrimination appeals may not directly shift electoral behavior, but can indirectly shape political support by activating a broader sense of camaraderie across communities of color.

A Crucible for Allyship: Dynamic Relations Between Partisan Identity and Solidarity Between People of Color in Polarized Times Under review (with Andrew Engelhardt, Seth Goldman, Yuen Huo, Tatishe Nteta, and Linda Tropp).

What Can Issue Salience Teach Us About Inter-Minority Solidarity? News and Panel Evidence on People of Color During the 2024 Presidential Campaign Under review (with Rodolfo Solís , Seth Goldman, Yuen Huo, Tatishe Nteta, and Linda Tropp).

Accumulating evidence reveals that solidarity between people of color is strongly associated with support for policies involving African Americans (affirmative action), Latinos (undocumented immigration), and Asian Americans (high-skilled immigration). Yet doubts remain about the direction of this relationship and whether it is conditioned by varied issue salience. We evaluate these links between inter-minority solidarity and policy support in the context of the 2024 U.S. presidential election. Using monthly newspaper data, Study 1 shows that during the 2024 election campaign the volume of news coverage on undocumented immigration and affirmative action was substantial while coverage about high-skilled immigration was minimal, suggesting solidarity’s positive effects on policy support should emerge on those two salient issues. Guided by this insight, Study 2 leverages a three-wave panel survey of Asian, Black, Latino, and Multiracial adults overlapping with the 2024 campaign. We find that prior changes in a person’s level of solidarity with people of color are positively related to their future support for affirmative action and undocumented immigration (but not high-skilled immigration), with no reverse patterns from policy support to solidarity. We synthesize these results with current insights about inter-minority politics and highlight new areas for future investigation.