“Our Theory of Change”: How PACs and Candidates Construct Identity Representation in U.S. Government

• In Event: 40420 - Section on Political Sociology Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): Table 2: Electoral Politics 1

Abstract

The present national demographic moment has been characterized as the most racially, ethnically, and gender diverse in U.S. history and the U.S. House of Representatives in 2023 was reportedly more diverse than ever (Schaeffer 2023, Jensen et al. 2021). Nonetheless, the House remains not quite “representative” of the nation’s diversity — white cis heterosexual males are overrepresented and greatly outnumber people of color, LGBTQ+ people, and women (Schaeffer 2023). In the absence of formal policies to increase identity representation, identity-based political action committees (PACs) and related political organizations attempt to uplift historically marginalized groups in politics. We do not know how these PACs help elect candidates (or not), for what purposes, and using what narratives. Through their operations and fundamental theories of success, these identity-based PACs craft ideas of who belongs in minoritized groups and who best represents them and their interests. In so doing, their work is a mechanism by which the boundaries of those groups are constituted, making identity groups legitimate and legible to the state. This research asks: how do identity-based PACs construct political representation of minoritized groups? In this paper, I argue that PACs and candidates work concurrently to constitute the legitimacy of identity representation in politics. By delving into two cases of PAC endorsed candidate campaigns, I demonstrate how the relationships between political investors, such as PAC representatives, and formal political actors, such as candidates and their campaign teams, work to construct the legitimate boundaries of identity categories in electoral politics. The exploration of PACs’ strategies to support candidates to improve representation explicates the relationship between identity and democracy, and unearths processes through which proportional political representation is both constituted and transformed.

Author

• Dori Taylor Carter, University of California-Berkeley