History of ethnocultural politics in the United States

Ethnocultural politics in the United States (or ethnoreligious politics) refers to the pattern of certain cultural or religious groups to vote heavily for one party. Groups can be based on ethnicity (such as Hispanics, Irish, Germans), race (White people, Black people, Asian Americans) or religion (Protestant [and later, Evangelical] or Catholic) or on overlapping categories (Irish Catholics). In the Southern United States, race was the determining factor. Each of the two major parties was a coalition of ethnoreligious groups in the Second Party System (1830s to 1850s) as well as the Third Party System (1850s to 1890s).