Race, Ethnicity and Politics Workshop: Jamil Scott (Georgetown University)

TITLE: "It's All About the Money: Understanding how Black women fund their campaigns at the state level and it's impact on their electoral success"

ABSTRACT: "Although Black women do not represent the largest group of officeholders, their numbers have continued to grow over time (Smooth, 2006). This is despite the fact that the cost of political campaigns is on the rise and Black women may face challenges in raising funds to run for office (Sanbonmatsu, 2015). In conjunction with more recent attention to Black women candidates, there has also been a great of discussion about organizations that recruit, train and fund women candidates. While these organizations are not new, we are still learning about the impact that they have in decreasing the gender disparity in political office - particularly when they do the work of contributing to women's political campaigns. Taking all of this together, there are two important questions here: Where do Black women find support to fund their campaigns, and how do women focused campaign funding groups matter for Black women's ability to run and win? Using both candidate data from the Reflective Democracy Project and data collected on campaign finance, I highlight differences in where Black women receive campaign funds from their male and female counterparts at the state level. In addition, I speak to the raced and gendered effects of political action committees."