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theses

Scholars have noted the ways race and gender have influenced the campaign strategies of minority and women candidates while growing intersectionality research has examined the campaign strategies of women of color. This dissertation combines these two scholarly themes by investigating the campaign strategies of black women and men candidates, as both sub-groups are underrepresented in elected office and share the common yolk of deracialization as a campaign strategy. I argue that the role of gender is valuable and necessary to assess the complexities of the campaign strategies of black candidates. Utilizing what I call an intersectional campaign framework informed by Weldon’s (2006) intersectionality-plus model, I investigate the influences of race, gender, and the combination of race and gender with other contextual factors on the components of a campaign strategy—campaign style, mobilization tactics, and issue priorities. I draw on semi-structured interviews with black women and men candidates for Congress and their campaign managers to gain an insider perspective, and a content analysis of black newspaper coverage to gauge the types of coverage received and the types of communication messages conveyed to majority black audiences, many of whom are the base of support for these candidates. My findings are complex but overall illustrate the influence of race, gender and both race and gender in the campaign approaches of black women and men candidates. Key findings include that a majority of black women and men candidates believe that race matters in campaign strategy to varying degrees, while black women candidates more than black men candidates believe that gender matters in campaign strategy. Additionally, black women voters are a key constituency for both black women and men candidates, while black women candidates appear more likely to advocate issues affecting minorities and women of color than their black male counterparts. Given the recent attention to black women—both as candidates and as voters—this dissertation is timely as it investigates the campaign approaches and perspectives of this group considering multiple dimensions of race, gender and the combination of race and gender.

ETD_9315

doi:10.7282/t3-xb2v-s683

Ph.D.

Includes bibliographical references

by Aiisha Michele Harden Russell

ETD doctoral

The author owns the copyright to this work.