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Cover -- Contents -- Foreword by Charles V. Hamilton -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction: The End of Identity Politics? -- 1. The Increasing Significance of Race -- 2. Stability and Change: How the Growing Racial Liberalism of White Democrats Influences Racial Polarization -- 3. The Declining Significance of Class: Racial Polarization and White Working-Class Voters -- 4. Polarization, Racialization, and White Partisan Political Behavior -- 5. The Return of Black Consciousness -- 6. The Increasing Importance of Racial Appeals for Black Voters -- 7. Making the Connection: How the Current Political Climate Has Increased Latino Panethnic Linked Fate -- 8. The Leaning Giant: Latinos and Racial Appeals -- 9. Using Racial Appeals to Harness Demographic Change -- Conclusion: The Path of Least Resistance -- Notes on the Data -- Bibliography -- Index.

What are my choices? : the growing diversity in high-profile statewide Black candidates -- Black candidates and voter turnout : does racialization matter? -- Racializing and winning elections : how voters respond to negative and positive racial appeals -- The first Black president : a comparison of political behavior in the 1988 and 2008 Democratic presidential primaries -- Positive and negative racial appeals in action : exploring the influence of racial appeals and political behavior over time -- Who cares? : exploring the mechanisms behind positive racial appeals and political behavior -- Conclusion: A necessary compromise? -- Appendix

AbstractWhile a number of studies demonstrate that black candidates have the ability to increase black political participation, a growing literature is investigatingwhydescriptive representation matters. This paper contributes to this discussion by exploring whether perceptions of candidate traits play a mediating role between the presence of an African American candidate on the ballot and increases in black political activity. I test this trait hypothesis using data from the 1992–2012 American National Election Study, a survey experiment, and statistical mediation analysis. The results indicate that perceptions of black candidates as being better leaders, more empathetic, knowledgeable, intelligent, honest, and moral explain a substantial amount of why descriptive representation increases black political participation across a range of different political activities. In the conclusion, I discuss the importance of the psychological link between blacks and their co-racial representatives in inspiring higher levels of political participation.

Recent scholarship finds that the use of explicit racial appeals can be an effective mobilization strategy in some situations. Consequently, U.S. politics has witnessed the resurgence of such appeals. Yet, the effects of racial appeals are not ensconced in electoral contexts, but may have potential downstream effects on interest representation and the ability for politicians to build broader coalitions This study uses a survey experiment to test the effect of exposure to racist comments used by a 2018 U.S. Senate candidate on perceived interest representation among Black and White respondents. The results show that Black and liberal White respondents who are exposed to these comments feel that the candidate is less able to represent their interests. Thus, we find that the use of explicit racial appeals potentially alienates a substantial proportion of people which could potentially lead to greater dissatisfaction with government.

ObjectiveTo explore whether increases in diversity give partisans immunity from claims of racial prejudice. To assess when individuals are more likely to report racially progressive attitudes when their party is accused of racism and racial representation in the party varies.MethodWe implement a survey experiment where individuals are told their party harbors either racial or religious prejudice and then are asked to vote on a party primary election in which the race of the candidates varies.ResultsWe find that white Republicans modify their racial attitudes in response to accusations of racism. However, this effect disappears when white Republicans are presented with evidence of racial/ethnic diversity in their party.ConclusionOur results demonstrate that racial/ethnic diversity in one's political party may delegitimize claims of racial bias and minimize these accusations' ability to alter racial attitudes.

Previous research demonstrates that individuals are more open to persuasion from people who share their race. However, it is not known whether this relationship holds for Asian Americans. We address this shortcoming by exploring how the race of an author influences support for, and perceptions of, the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement. Drawing from literature on opinion formation and social identity theory, we expect that whites will be most persuaded by whites, while Asian Americans will not be particularly persuaded by co-ethnic messengers due to relatively low levels of group identity. To test our hypotheses, we use two online surveys that oversample Asian American respondents who are randomly assigned letters in support of BLM written by either an Asian American author or a white author. Similar to previous research, we find that whites are more likely to respond to appeals from co-racial individuals. However, we find that Asian Americans respond positively to co-ethnic and white messengers. Further analysis reveals that Asian Americans' lower levels of in-group preferences compared with whites explains why they do not respond to co-racial individuals similarly to other groups.

While there are a number of studies that explore perceptions of black politicians' strengths and weaknesses relative to white politicians, most of these studies use hypothetical black candidates and focus on white respondents' attitudes. We explore whether research on attitudes about black candidate attributes in controlled settings hold for real‐world presidential candidates. Moreover, we assess whether black and white respondents view co‐racial politicians' relative strengths differently. We use the 1992–2012 American National Election Study to test our research questions. We find that blacks consistently view Democratic presidential candidates' traits more positively than whites. However, the racial gap in perceptions of presidential candidate traits is greatest for Obama relative to Clinton. Moreover, we demonstrate that the greater racial divide in perceptions of Obama's traits is in part driven by whites who view blacks as a group negatively.

Previous studies of descriptive representation have not been able to overcome the classic endogeniety problem. For example, do Black elected officials cause Blacks to be more empowered? Or are Black politicians only elected in contexts where Blacks are already empowered? We address this shortcoming by utilizing genetic matching and the 1996 National Black Election Study. Genetic matching creates a pseudo-experimental environment where Blacks in districts with Black elected officials are matched with similarly situated Blacks in districts without Black representation. This research design allows us to better assess the causality of descriptive representation and changes in political attitudes. This study provides strong evidence that higher levels of efficacy are a result of descriptive representation, rather than the cause of it. Thus, our study demonstrates Black office-holding at the congressional level empowers the Black electorate.

Although there is a large literature on the predictive accuracy of pre-election polls, there is virtually no systematic research examining the role that a candidate's gender plays in polling accuracy. This is a surprising omission given the precipitous growth of female candidates in recent years. Looking at Senate and Gubernatorial candidates from 1989 to 2008 (more than 200 elections in over 40 states), we analyze the accuracy of pre-election polls for almost the complete universe of female candidates and a matched sample of white male cases. We demonstrate that pre-election polls consistently underestimate support for female candidates when compared to white male candidates. Furthermore, our results indicate that this phenomenon-which we dub the Richards Effect, after Ann Richards of Texas-is more common in states which exhibit traits associated with culturally conservative views of gender issues. Adapted from the source document.