Trump’s Growing Appeal to People of Colour
Learning From the 2024 US Election
By Spencer Sunshine
The US election results shocked the liberal centre and left.
Far-right demagogue Donald Trump wasn’t just re-elected. The Republican Party took control of the Senate and the House of Representatives.
However, there was a second shock to many: a full one-third of Americans of colour voted for Trump.
Antifascists have always known that there were persons of colour on the far right, from the Trumpist mainstream to Neonazis.
After all, there is nothing unique to white people about ultranationalism; opposition to democracy and equality in favour of authoritarianism and conservative social hierarchies; and, of course, Antisemitism, racism, misogyny, homophobia and xenophobia.
But even with highly visible far-right leadership from people of colour during Trump’s first term—for example, the leader of the Proud Boys, Enrique Tarrio, is Afro-Cuban—their presence has continued to bewilder many on the left.
One of the main reasons for this is that left-leaning activists have come to adopt the theory that Trump and his supporters are nothing but White Supremacists; that the takeover of the US Capitol on 6 January 2021 was a racist revolt despite prominent leaders being people of colour; and that any minorities who supported Trump were mere dupes who only wanted to “participate in whiteness”.
In other words, race—and racism—were seen as the primary, if not sole, driver for Trump’s popularity.
But people of colour have been moving steadily to the right for years.
For example, in 2008, only 4% of Black voters—traditionally the most loyal Democratic racial group—went for the Republican presidential candidate John McCain.
However, during Trump’s three runs, his share of the black vote increased each time, from 8% in 2016 to 13% in 2024. That result was strongly gendered; in 2024, 21% of black men—most under 45—voted for Trump.
Latinos, historically the second-most conservative voting block after whites, have also lurched right.
Despite Trump’s consistently racist statements toward them, his Latino vote increased from 29% in 2016 to 46% in 2024.
Asian Americans, too, have increasingly voted for him, from 29% in 2016 to 39% most recently.
However, the most surprising result to many is that Trump appears to have won decisively among Native Americans, with 65% of the vote.
While the methodology for getting this number has been challenged, it is clear that Native votes have also been moving steadily right. One study found that in 2020, 38% voted for Trump. (A different poll claimed the number was 52%.)
In the 2022 Congressional mid-term vote, 40% supported Republicans, causing alarm in the Native American Caucus of the Democratic National Committee (the party’s central internal structure).
Whether the number is 40% or 65%, this is unthinkable to many leftists who see indigenous people as an inherently radical force who are opposed to the United States as such.
For many decades, Democrats have largely assumed people of colour would always be a pillar of their base, and so the party could afford to pay scant attention to them.
This led to the widespread notion that the United States will inevitably shift left as the demographic makeup of the country changes.
However, the Republicans have worked hard to court them.
In November 2016, Trump’s then-advisor Steve Bannon laid out their plan: “We’ll get 60 per cent of the white vote, and 40 per cent of the black and Hispanic vote, and we’ll govern for 50 years.”
There is something deeply provincial in the US left’s view of the role of race and the base of the far right.
Even if one excludes Islamists, which leftists have warmed up to, reactionary currents are visible across Africa, Asia and Latin America.
One would think that Trump’s far-right, Islamophobic Indian ally, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, would make this obvious enough.
The presence of non-white people on the right goes much further than just right-wing populists akin to Trump.
Consider, for example, how Neonazism is visible throughout Latin America and even has supporters in the Pacific Islands, Asia, and the Middle East.
The overwhelming Republican victory in this election has made it clear that American politics are in flux and that the Democratic Party’s politics of the past decades are losing appeal.
Perhaps that is true more widely of liberal democracy as a whole.
Regardless, the rightward shift of Americans of colour is real and one that will require a different approach if the centre and the left are to keep these demographic groups in their base.
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Photograph courtesy of Duncan Cumming. Published under a Creative Commons license.