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 (whites, blacks, Asian Americans) or religion (Protestant or Catholic) or on overlapping categories (Irish Catholics). In the South, 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).