Intersectionality and Representation in Campaign Finance

• In Event: Race and Political Representation

Abstract

The role of race and gender in partisanship and turnout have been well-documented, but we know less about race and gender in campaign finance. Recent studies have investigated different contribution patterns across gender and race, but mostly descriptively (e.g., Thomsen and Swers 2017) and without a focus on the intersection of race and gender (e.g., Grumbach and Sahn 2018). In this study, we use new data on the race and gender of millions of campaign contributors to (1) estimate race and gender parity in money in politics, and (2) estimate the causal effect of candidate race and gender on the race and gender distribution of their sources of campaign funds. We use difference-in-difference and regression discontinuity designs to identify causal effects. Black, Latino, and female shares of campaign contributions are smaller than their proportions of the electorate and of elected officials. However, the presence or nomination of candidates of color greatly increases the ethnoracial diversity of contributions. By contrast, the presence or nomination of women has a much smaller and less consistent effect of moving funds toward gender parity.

Author

• Jake M Grumbach, Princeton University