How Education Levels Influence the Efficacy of Progressive Racial Appeals

• In Event: Voting with All Five Senses

Abstract

In recent years, there has been a significant growth in campaign appeals focused on advancing black’s political interests. While previous research has explored how different racial groups respond to this outreach, less has been done to explore whether there are internal divisions within each racial group in their reactions to racialized campaign appeals. In this study, we assess whether an education gap exists in whites, blacks, and Latinxs responses to black focused outreach. Using content analysis of over 50,000 press releases, the Cooperative Congressional Election Survey and an original experiment administered on Qualtrics, we find consistent evidence that whites with college degrees respond positively to progressive black appeals. In contrast, whites without college degrees reject this racial outreach. We find no such education divide for blacks or Latinxs. The results provide more information about the efficacy of a deracialized campaign. Moreover, our findings shed some light on the current partisan realignment around education.

Authors

• Christopher T. Stout, Oregon State University

• Jada Krening

• Maneesh Arora, Wellesley College

• Erik Chi