Black Women's Political Ambition

• In Event: Black Women and Leadership

Abstract

In the 2018 midterm elections a record number of women ran for office, including more than 400 Black women. In particular, there were a number of historic victories for Black women. Outside of Congress, Black women made history by winning of historic elections. One of the most notable theories that has been used to explain motivation for running for political office is Richard Fox and Jennifer Lawless’ theory of nascent political ambition. They find that a sense of efficacy as a candidate and a politicized upbringing motivate people to consider running for office. While the Democratic Party has noted the importance of Black women to the Party, even referring to them as the “backbone of the Democratic Party,” it was noted that in the 2018 midterm elections Black women won their primaries and never heard from Party leadership. To date, scholars have overlooked Black women’s motivation to run for office. We argue that Black women’s political ambition has less to do with having been encouraged to run for office or feeling that they are highly qualified, but instead is related to their sense of civic duty. This study uses data from the 2016 Collaborative Multi-Racial Post-Election Survey (CMPS), which is a national survey of voters and non-voters on political and social issues conducted between December and February 2017. A unique feature of the CMPS is that it includes enough respondents to conduct both cross-racial and intra-racial analysis. We argue that Black women's interest in politics and political ambition have less to do with party leadership and is ultimately motivated by a sense of efficacy, community leadership, and duty. We aim to parse who is recruiting Black women into leadership in politics, given that Black women do not navigate a singular path into office.

Authors

• Chaya Crowder, Princeton University

• Christine Marie Slaughter, Princeton University

• Christina M. Greer, Fordham University