In explaining the rise of populism, it’s not economic anxiety vs. identity politics – it’s both.

Many commentators attributed Donald Trump’s surprise 2016 election victory to the role played by voters heavily affected by deindustrialization, often located in the so-called Midwestern ‘Rust Belt’. In new research which examines voting patterns in counties which have experienced manufacturing layoffs, Leonardo Baccini and Stephen Weymouth find that that these layoffs are associated with greater support for Republican challengers among whites compared to voters of color. They attribute this pattern to whites’ concerns about social and economic status loss in the face of layoffs, concerns which are played on by populist and reactionary candidates like Donald Trump.