African American Representation: Political Party Incorporation and Candidate Recruitment in Georgia and Mississippi Open Access

Abstract

The lower descriptive political representation of African Americans in the United States raises a very important question: why aren't African Americans running and winning at the same rate as their white counterparts? I hypothesize that political party incorporation and strengthened candidate recruitment of blacks will increase African American descriptive representation. Following the research of Kira Sanbonmatsu (2006) on candidate recruitment of women, I intend to show that party incorporation and candidate recruitment do increase African American representation. The overall importance of descriptive representation in politics demonstrates the vast significance of this study. While many scholars argue that the presence of majority-black districts is the primary determinant of whether African Americans run, my study provides introductory evidence that other factors may be involved in motivating African Americans to run.

Table of Contents

Table of Contents
Introduction…………………………………………………………………….....1

Chapter One: Choice of States…………………………………………...………6

Chapter Two: Factors that Affect African American Political
Representation…………………………………………………………………...11

Chapter Three: The Importance of Political Party Incorporation for African
American Representation…………………………….....………………………19

Chapter Four: Candidate Recruitment and its Impact on African American
Representation…………………………………...………………………………34

Conclusion……………………………………….……………………………….56

Appendix………………………………….………………………………………63

Bibliography……………………………….……………………………………..70

Tables and Figures

Table I: Percent of Total State Legislative Seats Held by African Americans,
by Year……………………………………………………………………...……...2

Table 1: African American Representation at the State Legislature
Level………………………………………………………………………………..9

Table 2: Percent Total of Pipeline Professions (Law and Education), by
Race…………………………………………………………………….…………11

Table 3: Interview Subjects, by Race, Gender and Interview Type…….…....27

Table 4: Interview Subjects: Legislator Characteristics………………………40

Table 4.1: Party and Nonparty Recruitment Contacts, by Race………..........41

Table 4.2: Reported Influence of Party Encouragement, by Race…………...47

Table 4.3: Differences in Party Encouragement, by State…………………….50

Table A.1: Detailed Demographic Information, by State……………………..63

Table A.2: Comparison of Racial Composition and Ideology, by Percent Black
and Percent Conservative………………………………………...……………..63

Table A.3: State Legislators, by Race, Gender, Election Year and
District……………………………………………………………………………64

Figure A.1: List of Political Party Interview Subjects, by State……...………67

Figure A.2: Sample Interview of Political Party Officials…………………….67

Figure A.3: Sample Interview of State Legislators……………………….……68

About this Honors Thesis

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School	Emory College
Department	Political Science
Degree	BA
Submission	Honors Thesis
Language	English
Research Field	Black Studies American Studies
Keyword	Georgia African Americans political party incorporation political representation Mississippi candidate recruitment descriptive representation
Committee Chair / Thesis Advisor	Gillespie, Andra, Emory University
Committee Members	Giles, Micheal W, Emory University Crespino, Joseph, Emory University

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