Descriptive or Partisan Representation? Examining Trade-Offs for Asian Americans

Abstract

Do voters want representatives who share their race, ethnicity, or partisanship? We examine this question with a focus on Asian Americans who face trade-offs between descriptive (i.e., Asian American or "pan-ethnic'') and partisan representation, as well as trade-offs involving "co-ethnic'' (e.g., Korean for Korean) and "cross-ethnic'' (e.g., Indian for Korean) descriptive representation. Across two experiments, we find that when Asian Americans are asked about collective representation in Congress, they prioritize increased co-ethnic and pan-ethnic legislators over co-partisan legislators. However, in a competitive electoral setting, they often trade off race/ethnicity for partisanship. Asian Americans are only willing to cross party lines to vote for a co-ethnic candidate, but never for a cross- or pan-ethnic candidate. These findings shed light on the importance of considering heterogeneous preferences along ethnicities within the same racial "in-group," such as Asian Americans, a heavily understudied and heterogeneous group in American politics.

Keywords: descriptive representation, Asian Americans, conjoint analysis, survey experiment, partisanship

JEL Classification: D72