Thursday, April 8, 2021

8:30AM -  5:00PM

Looking for Money in all the Wrong Places? Race, Gender, and Campaign Fundraising
Carrie Skulley, Gabi Vitela, and Andrea Silva (Asst. Prof., North Texas)

A diverse population is best served by diverse representatives and while the 2020 election featured more candidate diversity than ever before, the fact remains that women of color remain underrepresented across government. While many studies examine the campaign and electoral experiences of women, these studies tend to focus on women in the aggregate. One of the most important features of a campaign is fundraising. While studies show that women tend to raise as much money as men, these studies typically focus on women in the aggregate. In this study, we employ the DIME dataset to examine fundraising totals and sources across race and ethnicity for women candidates between 1980 and 2014. We analyze this data using cross-sectional time series analysis. We contend that important differences across groups of women would be evident if we considered different subgroups rather than focusing on women’s experiences in the aggregate.

Social Capital, Political Engagement, and Political Ambition among the Underrepresented 
Kenicia Wright (Asst. Prof.; U. Central Florida)

The proposed project will examine: “To what extent does social capital act as a political resource for minority women seeking legislative office in the US?” There is an extensive line of research on the factors that shape the political representation of individuals who belong to traditionally under-represented groups. Scholars study this relationship for state legislative elections and Congressional elections and there are interesting dynamics in both. Although minorities and women are under-represented in most levels of government, accounting for multiple social identities via an intersectional approach unveils a history of minority women being slightly over-represented as state legislators. While there is attention to the determinants of electoral success, extant research on Congressional elections largely focuses on effects of minority women being elected to office and emphasizes the importance of electoral rules and the racial and political make-up of constituents in shaping electoral success. 

I argue that social capital, measured as one’s relationships and connections, will influence civic and political engagement becoming a resource that contributes to increased likeliness of minority women receiving encouragement to run for, and ultimately will win, elections for political office. Building on existing research that highlights the effects of social capital on trust in government, political participation, and voter turnout, I use a newly developed measure that captures the stock of social capital held by whites, blacks, Latinos, and women and apply the intersectional approach to assess whether high stocks of social capital promote the emergence and electoral success of white women, black women, and Latinas.

Dynamics of Partisan Competition for Legislative Majorities in the U.S. House & Senate, 1963-2018
Carlos Algara (Asst. Prof., UTEP)

What drives partisan competition over their pursuit of legislative majority in contemporary congressional elections? While the literature suggests that the chances of a legislative majority is largely predicated on the public’s ideological policy preferences or national standing of the president, to date there is little work assessing the dynamics of partisan competition over the course of the electoral cycle. Leveraging over 55 years of new generic congressional ballot data measuring the quarterly preference of the mass public’s partisan presence for the congressional majority, this paper finds that partisan competition for the majority largely centers on the national policy mood and the public perception of presidential performance. Moreover, there is no evidence to suggest that partisan conflict on Capitol Hill negatively inhibits the majority party’s pursuit of maintaining their majority. This paper validates the importance of these findings relating to partisan competition for the legislative majority by finding that this electoral competition plays a significant role in predicting national partisan seat turnover and normal vote in the House and Senate from 1964 to 2018.