Stepping up: black political ambition and success

Abstract

What compels African-Americans to enter the electoral arena? And what influences their political ambitions for higher office? Few studies have focused on blacks' paths to office and ambition, and thus an empirically tested theoretical framework of minority candidate emergence and political ambition is far from complete. In this paper, I seek to answer a number of fundamental questions: How often do black candidates attempt to seek higher office, and how often are they successful? Does this pattern differ significantly from that visible for white candidates? Using two decades (1990–2010) of data on Louisiana from the Local Elections in America Project that allows me to track candidates' paths to office, I develop a theory of black political ambition that hypothesizes that race will play a direct and interactive role in when and where black candidates run for and win office. The results suggest, first, no statistically significant differences between black and white candidates' expressions of static political ambition, and African-Americans expressing desire for higher office (progressive ambition) more often. In other words, race does not seem to play a negative factor in determining political ambition. However, running for office and winning office are not the same, and black candidates are significantly less likely to win these offices. The gap, then, in racially diverse representation is not because African-American candidates are not interested or expressing political ambition, but rather because they are seeking office and losing. I conclude with implications of these findings for issues of representational parity of minorities more generally, and the electoral pipeline of black candidates in particular.