Elections are opportunities for citizens to choose who will make decisions for them and who will exert the power of the state over them. Pundits and scholars have contended that voting for a candidate based on their racial, ethnic, or gender identity is irrational and unreasonable and leads to suboptimal outcomes. Political scientist Ismail White will examine how racial, ethnic, and gender identity influence voting decisions and how an initial identity-driven political choice shapes subsequent voting decisions. He will conduct three survey experiments for his study.

Ensuring the political representation of ethnic and racial minorities is one of the oldest and most pressing challenges facing American democracy. However, simply electing racial and ethnic politicians does not guarantee that they will respond to the needs of their minority constituents. Sociologist Ellis Monk and political scientist René Rejon will examine the relationship between the racial and ethnic identity of African American, Asian American, and Latinx politicians and their support for legislation benefiting their minority constituents.

In a representative democracy, the ability to vote is a citizen’s primary tool for holding policymakers accountable. Women’s suffrage was an important step in resolving significant inequality in access to political power for women. However, we know little about whether policymakers adapted their behavior to account for women’s suffrage. Political scientists Michael Olson, Mirya Holman, and Christina Wolbrecht will examine how women’s enfranchisement impacted state policymakers’ behavior in the first half of the twentieth century.

The Gideon v. Wainwright (1963) Supreme Court decision recognized criminal defendants’ right to counsel in state courts. The administration of rights to counsel has largely been left to states and local governments and, as a result, many jurisdictions provide indigent defendants with assigned counsel—local private attorneys who work full time in the charging jurisdiction—as opposed to public defenders.

Typically, during economic crises, the federal government provides relief policies that disproportionately benefit White men. However, during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in the U.S., women were most impacted by changes in the economy and workforce. Political scientists Margaret Perez Brower and Jamila Michener will examine how the impacts of COVID-19 relief policies varied among working women of different racial and ethnic groups. They will conduct interviews for their study.

Past research has found that voters prefer politicians who look like them. However, recent studies suggest that White Democrats now tend to prefer politicians of color, whereas White Republicans continue to lean towards White representatives. Political scientist Anna Mikkelborg will examine how perceptions of Black government representation influence White voters' beliefs about government legitimacy. She will conduct a series of public opinion surveys for her study.

Inadequate nutrition can harm children’s health and development, including academic outcomes. A promising way to boost child nutrition is through home meal programs. Psychologists Rebecca Ryan, Ariel Kalil, and Anna Gassman-Pines, sociologist Pamela Herd, political scientist and public policy scholar Carolyn Barnes, and public policy scholar and behavioral scientist Elizabeth Linos will evaluate the effects of a home meal program on student academic outcomes in a low-income community. They will conduct a field experiment for their study.