Sydney L. Carr
Publications
Abstract
During the 2018 House of Representatives elections, the United States saw a larger influx of minority candidates than elections in recent years. Many of these candidates were non-incumbents who ran successful campaigns against long-standing incumbents. Using the 2018 Cooperative Election Study data (CCES), we analyze the likelihood of Black voters to support White candidates over minority candidates, with a focus on incumbency status. Previous research has found that Black voters tend to display a larger affinity to support minority candidates due to theories such as group identity and racial voting. Given what is known from the literature about Black voting patterns, our study sets out to determine the extent to which incumbency matters for Black voters in the 2018 Congressional House of Representative (HOR) elections. The findings of our analysis reveal that Black voters are significantly more likely to support Democratic POC candidates, and significantly less likely to support Democratic white incumbents as compared to white voters. The findings of our study illuminate that both the affinity to support minority candidates and incumbency matter to Black Voters.
Abstract
This article proposes a theoretical approach that highlights the role of identity in information exposure and processing. This Identity Driven Information Ecosystem (IDIE) approach is premised on the idea that everyone’s information ecosystem varies, shaped by who they are, where they live, and who they interact with. Identities play a crucial role in determining the sites of communication that individuals use and engage with, and as a result, there are systematic differences in where people get information, what information they see, and how they react to it. This article lays out an argument for how identity is associated with the information we are exposed to, select, believe, and share; and it argues that identity, technology, affordances, and structures interact to shape our information ecosystems. The article concludes with a case study of the COVID-19 pandemic as an illustration of applying the IDIE approach to understand individual-level variation in information ecosystems.
Abstract
This research brief investigates whether Black women leaders’ dual race-gender identity creates additional disadvantages in terms of public perception compared to their counterparts in other race-gender groups. This research points to the necessity for political practitioners to consider how historical stereotypes persist as obstacles for politicians from marginalized, intersecting identities.