Bringing Race Back In: Black Politicians, Deracialization, and Voting Behavior in the Age of Obama

Bringing Race Back In empirically investigates whether "post-racial" campaign strategies, which are becoming increasingly common, improve black candidates’ ability to mobilize and attract voters of all races and ethnicities. In contrast to existing studies, this analysis demonstrates that black candidates who make positive racial appeals (for example, racial appeals that indicate that the candidate will either advance black policy interests or highlight the candidate’s connection to the bla...