Hunter Rendleman was quoted in FiveThirtyEight:
When people of color see politicians who look like them, it can have profound effects. Political science research suggests that this so-called “descriptive representation” increases Americans’ trust in politicians and engagement with politics. But in the U.S., the percentage of people of color running for office lags far behind their share of the population (41 percent). And it’s not enough for nonwhite candidates to simply run; to achieve any sort of proportional representation, obviously, they also have to win.
In 2022, 30 percent of the candidates who ran in Democratic or Republican primaries for Senate, House or governor were people of color, according to new data collected throughout the primary season by political scientists Bernard Fraga and Hunter Rendleman. And the data shows that only 28 percent of the candidates appearing on the November ballot will be people of color. In other words, in all likelihood, 2023 will not be the year that people of color are proportionally represented in the halls of government.
The full article is available here.