The Tea Party is the most electorally influential social movement in recent American history. What factors
led the movement to emerge when it did? And what role might racial prejudice play in Tea Party support?
Here I test the claim that recent political, demographic, and economic events have threatened the status
of white Americans, leading them to increased racial prejudice and support for the Tea Party. Five studies
support this reasoning, demonstrating that various threats to the status of whites lead white Americans to
express both greater prejudice and greater support for the movement. A final study finds that threatened
whites reported greater support for the Tea Party when racialized aspects of its platform (e.g., opposition
to immigration) were highlighted, not when libertarian positions (e.g., opposition to environmental
regulation) were. These findings support a view of the Tea Party as, in part, a response to a perceived
decline in the status of whiteness in America. I conclude by discussing prospects for a general theory of
the role of group status in the mobilization of large scale collective actions.