Could anti-Trump sentiment mobilize African-American voters in 2018?

African-American voters who dislike and feel threatened by Donald Trump and his presidency are much more likely to vote and to engage with politics, according to new research from California State University, Sacramento, and the University of Washington. The findings, the researchers say, indicate sentiment against Trump and his policies creates an opportunity for African-American mobilization as the country heads toward the 2018 midterm elections. "Our findings suggest that political strategies that highlight the racially regressive politics of Trump and reactionary conservatives may serve as a powerful motivating force,” said lead author Christopher Towler of California State University, Sacramento. In a paper published Feb. 27 in the Journal of Race, Ethnicity, and Politics, Towler and Christopher Parker , UW professor of political science, used information from the 2016 Black Voter Project Pilot Study - an ongoing project overseen by Towler - to examine African-American political engagement in the post-Obama environment. This study consisted of 511 responses from African-Americans located in six battleground states with significant black constituencies. The researchers found that: Black voters who "strongly disapprove” of Trump are 30 percent more likely to have voted in 2016 than those with no opinion of Trump.