Professor of Political Science Katherine Tate was not surprised by the findings of her most recent research project: In Congress, “representation of minorities does matter substantively,” she said in an interview with The Herald.
In her new book, “Black Voices in the Halls of Power: Race and Rhetorical Representation in Congress,” Tate, along with two co-authors, investigate how Black representatives in Congress address issues of race differently from their white colleagues.
Black members of Congress are significantly more likely to speak about race and advocate for the concerns of Black constituents than Democrat or Republican non-Black legislators, Tate said.
The book was based on previously established research that “descriptive representation” — when elected officials reflect the demographics of their constituents — is essential for having Congress members that “introduce bills that champion what their group cares most about,” according to Christopher Stout, a co-author and a professor of political science at the University of California, San Diego.
“We as political scientists know that seeing someone like you in office matters a great deal about how you perceive the legitimacy of democracy or of the government,” said Jennifer Garcia, the book’s other co-author and an associate professor of politics and comparative American studies at Oberlin College.
While most politicians are “somewhat risk averse” when it comes to raising new topics, descriptive representatives are more likely to “stick their neck out” and speak on controversial issues, Stout said.
Stout pointed to how Black legislators brought discussions of the Black Lives Matter movement to Congress.
For a long time, “people weren’t talking about race and policing, but Black elected officials were,” Stout said. He added that these officials often play a crucial role in developing a “playbook” to address these issues.
Another example Stout pointed to involved former U.S. Rep. Cori Bush, a Black Democrat from Missouri who staged protests outside of the U.S. Capitol in 2021 when a federal moratorium that protected people from eviction during the COVID-19 pandemic was about to expire. Stout said that because Bush drew media attention to the issue, her efforts ultimately led to the passage of a bill that provided support to people facing evictions.
This was “an issue that people weren’t paying attention to,” Stout said, adding that because people in danger of eviction are part of a marginalized group, “there might not be a political benefit” to advocate for them.
“But Cori Bush did,” he said.
During the research process for the book, the scholars examined over 600,000 social media posts and over 1,200 press releases from 2019 to 2021 to better understand how Black representatives communicate with their constituents, according to Tate. The scholars also conducted on-the-ground interviews with communication directors of Congress members.
To Tate, the book’s findings are especially relevant in a political environment that she said is increasingly constraining “activists who want to talk about race.”
“We’re in a very troubling era,” she added.
Tate told The Herald that she has now started research for her next book, which will examine the “manosphere” and its influence on how young Black men voted in the 2024 election. She plans to continue analyzing social media content to assess the role of the internet in electoral processes and outcomes.
Garcia and Stout were both Tate’s students when they were completing their doctoral degrees at the University of California, Irvine — a dynamic that Garcia said made the project “pretty cool” to work on. In fact, Stout said that he chose to attend UCI because he wanted to work with Tate after he read her book “Black Faces in the Mirror” when he was an undergraduate student.
“I don’t know that I would have been the scholar that I am without the chance to do work with Katherine,” he said.
