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Political parties shape electoral outcomes by determining who stands for election and what campaign resources they have at their disposal. The introduction of gender quotas have led party leaders to nominate more women candidates, however, those women disproportionately lose. We contend that one of the reasons that women routinely lose is because party elites withhold the campaign resources necessary to mount an effective campaign. In this paper, we test this resource gatekeeping argument using data on the provision of campaign resources in Brazil. We analyze the distribution of three different types of party resources: candidate identification numbers, financial support, and television airtime. Our findings show that party elites provide female candidates less advantageous candidate identification numbers, less financial support, and less media access than they provide male candidates. Importantly, we do not find that gender gaps in campaign contributions are attributable to differences in candidate quality. This finding suggests that even when women are recruited to run for office, party elites may still undermine their electoral prospects.

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Elected officials routinely do not reflect the racial diversity of the citizenry. In Latin America, these descriptive gaps are particularly pronounced. A growing number of studies investigate the causes of racial disparities in representation, however, extant research largely focuses on national assemblies. In this paper, I extend this well-trod line of research to an understudied context, local elections. Using a dataset that covers mayoral elections in Brazil, I demonstrate that multiple factors hinder Afro-Brazilians, who comprise a majority of the Brazilian population, from winning public office. I show that barriers to candidate entry, resource disparities between white and Afro-Brazilian candidates, and race-based preferences among voters contribute to racial inequality in political representation. These results indicate that members of marginalized racial groups often must overcome multiple barriers to achieve electoral success.

Television is an important political tool in Latin America. In recognition of its ability to shape public opinion and influence political behavior, Brazilian electoral authorities provide political parties with free television airtime in the weeks preceding elections. While Brazil's publicly financed electoral program levels the playing field between parties, it may contribute to intraparty resource disparities. This article contends that racial considerations influence how party elites distribute television airtime and thus contribute to the political marginalization of Afro-Brazilians. Using original data from Rio de Janeiro's 2012 municipal elections, it shows that party officials provide Afro-Brazilian candidates significantly less airtime than their white counterparts, even after controlling for theoretically important nonracial candidate characteristics. Moreover, it shows that there are racial differences in how candidates use the airtime they are awarded. Afro-Brazilian candidates are nearly ten times more likely than whites to focus on racial issues in their campaign ads. These results provide new insight about why Afro-Brazilians are rarely elected to public office and, when elected, the types of issues they may address.A televisão é uma importante ferramenta política na América Latina. Reconhecendo sua habilidade em conformar uma opinião pública e influenciar o comportamento político, a lei eleitoral brasileira concede tempo gratuito de TV para que os partidos políticos possam apresentar suas campanhas nas semanas anteriores ao período eleitoral. Enquanto o horário político eleitoral gratuito busca nivelar a competição entre esses partidos, ele expressa também as desigualdades internas a eles na distribuição do tempo de TV dentre seus candidatos. Nosso argumento neste artigo é que vieses raciais influenciam o modo como os dirigentes partidários distribuem o tempo de televisão gratuito e, assim, contribuem para a marginalização política das candidaturas afro-brasileiras (pardas e pretas). Utilizando dados inéditos das eleições municipais de 2012 no município do Rio de Janeiro, mostramos que dirigentes partidários distribuem menos tempo de televisão para candidatos afro-brasileiros do que para seus pares brancos, mesmo quando controlamos outras de suas características. Mais importante ainda, nós encontramos diferenças no modo como os candidatos utilizam o tempo de campanha que recebem. Candidatos afro-brasileiros tendem a focar dez vezes mais em questões raciais do que brancos, por exemplo. Esses resultados trazem novas perspectivas sobre porque candidatos afro-brasileiros são pouco eleitos e os tipos de questões que eles abordam quando eleitos.Television is central to modern political campaigns and arguably the most politically influential medium in Latin America. As a result of historically low levels of literacy and limited newspaper circulation, Latin Americans learn about politics principally by watching television (