Black and Latino Candidates: Successful Strategies? - News Feed - Brief Article

African Americans currently hold 600 seats in state legislatures across the nation. Latinos currently hold 198 seats in state legislatures. These candidates have succeeded, according to the results of a University of Maryland survey, because they have raised substantial amounts of funds and campaigned on issues that attract voters of all racial backgrounds.

A nationwide survey of candidates that who ran for office between 1996 and 1998 shows that African-American, Latino and white state legislative candidates raised comparable amounts of money from similar sources, and allocated near identical portions of their campaign budgets to campaign communications, research and fundraising. The survey also shows how African-American and Latino candidates coped with the imperatives of race. Most white voters tend to hold positive stereotypes of white candidates and negative stereotypes of minority candidates. These stereotypes are particularly detrimental to state- and federal-level candidates whose districts are large enough to include a substantial number of white and minority voters.

Examples of specific elections are instructive. The victories of state Sen. Al Lawson (D-FL), and state Rep. Melvoid Benson (D-RI) suggest that minority candidates who emphasize substantive issues that have mass appeal, and avoid direct appeals to minority voters, can overcome this obstacle, and win the election. Benson, whose district is 94 percent white, won the Democratic primary against a white opponent stressing three major issues: economics, education and the environment. She was unopposed in the general election.

In the campaign for state senator, Lawson positioned himself as a candidate for working people, and won the Democratic primary against a white opponent with more than 60 percent of the vote in an 11-county district where whites outnumber African Americans by more than a 3-to-1 majority. Lawson's campaign raised $273,145.52 and spent $265,461.11, while his general election opponent, Brecht Heuchan, raised $105,454.63 and spent $71,054.90.

The survey of candidates, which is part of the Campaign Assessment and Candidate Outreach Project sponsored by the Center for American Politics and Citizenship at the University of Maryland with a grant from The Pew Charitable Trusts, confirms that like Benson and Lawson, most African-American and Latino state legislative candidates employ deracialized strategies. These candidates are more likely to stress social welfare issues, including health care and Social Security, and focus less on racial issues, civil rights, illegal drugs and other issues that disproportionately affect minority communities. Whites, on the other hand, are more likely to focus on economic issues. We also find that find that African-American and Latino candidates are significantly more likely to target minority and women voters, and to emphasize geography as compared to white candidates.

Do distinctive racial strategies give African-American and Latino candidates advantages in winning elections? Survey results suggest the answer is no. Emphasizing issues that have mass appeal and avoiding direct appeals to minority voters successfully challenges white voters to be less race-bound in their voting preferences, helping African-American and Latino candidates increase their percentage of the general election vote.

Statistical analysis shows that African-American and Latino candidates who target voters outside their racial or ethnic group win 22 percentage points more than African-American and Latino candidates who focus primarily on their base. The analysis controls for campaign spending, campaign organizational professionalism, incumbency, party affiliation and the media coverage received by the candidates. It was also found that focusing on broad-based social welfare concerns increases African-American and Latino candidates vote share by 10 percentage points. Focusing on issues that disproportionately affect minority communities has no statistically significant impact, and does little to help candidates gain additional votes.

As debate over necessity of majority-minority districts continues, the electoral success of African-American and Latino candidates running for state and federal offices may continue to be dependent upon their ability to demonstrate that they can serve constituents of all races. De-racialized strategies may be a vital key to African-American and Latino electoral success.

Paul S. Hermson, Ph.D., and Atiya Kai Stokes are with the Center for American Politics and Citizenship at the University of Maryland.

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