White supremacist attitudes are on the rise in the United States. In this paper, we assert that there are latent white supremacist sentiments, deeply connected to the changing racial demographics of the U.S., that can shift white Democrats’ partisan attitudes when primed. We specifically focus on support for anti-abortion laws, and show that when white Democrats are primed to think about racial demographic change, it activates this latent white supremacy and makes them more supportive of anti-abortion law. We find little moderation across political views of white Democrats, including between white men and women Democrats. We conclude discussing the implications of latent white supremacy for the study of gender, race and democratic backsliding in the U.S.
Read the preprint in OSF.