Differences in Campaign Funds: A Racial Explanation

Abstract

Black candidates for the U.S. House of Representatives receive substantially lower levels of campaign contributions than non-black candidates. This article investigates the reason for this discrepancy. Are blacks discriminated against or do they receive less money because they are riskier candidates? The results suggest that blacks do receive less money because of their race and that the source of the funds is important. Political action committees and political parties tend to discriminate but individual contributors do not.

The Party's Primary Preferences: Race, Gender, and Party Support of Congressional Primary Candidates

“…As shown in Table , we find no evidence of party discrimination or support of minority candidates in the primary. In contrast to findings from previous decades (Theilmann and Wilhite ), we do not find that parties discriminate against minority candidates. White candidates do not receive substantially or significantly more support from parties than do their minority counterparts.…”

“…Lastly, the limited research on party support of minorities in general elections has drawn differing conclusions. Scholarship on party support of minority candidates has found both that parties discriminate against minority candidates (Theilmann and Wilhite ) and also that parties (specifically the Republican Party) are more supportive of minority candidates relative to their white counterparts (Fraga and Hassell ). In short, there is no research that analyzes party support of minorities during the primary election process, and research about party support of minority candidates during the general election is inconsistent in its findings.…”

“…As we note in more detail later, there is also disagreement about how much parties support underrepresented candidates in the general election (Fraga and Hassell ; Theilmann and Wilhite ).…”

Are Minority and Women Candidates Penalized by Party Politics? Race, Gender, and Access to Party Support

“…This might shed some additional light on the level of support from the party network. Last, in line with previous studies of party support for particular candidates, we look at the direct contributions that parties give to candidates in the general election (Theilmann and Wilhite 1986). 4 While missing signals sent behind the scenes, measuring direct financial commitments contributed to candidates by the party Hill committees provides a clear and salient measure of the public support that the party is interested in providing to its general election candidate in a district.…”

“…While we might expect party elites to prioritize winning above everything else, including the race and gender of a candidate, some evidence suggests that this may not be the case. Theilmann and Wilhite (1986) found that during the 1980s, black candidates raised less money from party organizations and political action committees (PACs) than their white counterparts. Today, minority Democrats have continued to criticize the party for a perceived lack of financial support outside of minority-majority districts (Herndon 2018).…”