At least 65% of Americans say Black Americans will gain influence under Biden, Pew Research survey finds
A majority of Americans in a new survey believe Black people, women, as well as gay and lesbian people will gain influence during Joe Biden’s presidency.
The administration has already prioritized diversity and inclusion with the most racially diverse cabinet in US history. The new administration has also made issues such as discrimination against the LGBTQ community a top priority in its first few days by signing an executive order to lift the Trump-era ban on transgender members of the US military.
The report released Tuesday by the Pew Research Center was based on a online survey of 5,360 adults, who are members of Pew’s American Trends Panel, and was conducted from January 8 to 12.
Nearly two-thirds or 65% of those surveyed said Black people will gain influence under Biden, while 63% expect women and 60% expect gay and lesbian people to gain influence during the course of the administration’s four-year term.
Half or more said younger people (54%), Hispanic people (53%), poor people (50%) would gain influence during this time, the report said.
When asked how the influence of “people like yourself” would change under Biden, Black Americans were most likely to say they would gain influence (53%), while fewer Hispanic Americans felt the same (33%). Among White Americans, 45% felt they would lose influence in the Biden era.
The results were similar to expectations in a Pew survey prior to President Barack Obama’s time in office and differed from the survey taken ahead of the President Donald Trump administration, when participants said White people and men would among groups to gain influence.
The new study suggests Americans see a loss in influence ahead for those groups that were core supporters of Donald Trump during his administration.
Half of those who participated in the study said they think evangelical Christians will lose influence during Biden’s presidency, with nine percent saying they thought they would gain influence and 39% saying they would remain unaffected by the new administration.
The study also found that 38% believe White people will lose influence, while 15% said they thought they would gain influence and 46% believing White people will be unaffected.
Of those that responded, 44% of White adults said they thought White people will lose influence in Washington, while 23% of Black adults and 28% of Hispanic adults said the same thing.
Business corporations and the military are also expected to lose influence, according to the survey.
The study found that political party affiliation is closely connected to views on how influence will change, with Republicans and Democrats differing “significantly about which groups stand to gain or lose influence.”
A majority of Democrat and Democratic-leaning independents said they believe women, Black people, Hispanic people, poor people, gay and lesbian people, and young people will gain influence under the presidency.
However, those who were Republicans or Republican-leaning independents had more divided responses on most groups, with the exception of a majority of them — 63% — believing gay and lesbian people will gain influence.
The study found a large partisan divide in views on poor people, with 42% of Republicans surveyed believing poor people will lose influence, while 29% believe they will gain and 27% believe they will remain unaffected. Among Democrats, 69% believe poor people will gain influence.
