How Candidates with “Invisible Identities" Navigate Identity in Political Campaigns

This grant is co-funded with The Policy Academies.

Some political candidates, whose personal identities are often largely invisible to the public, may choose to highlight certain aspects of their identity, such as immigrant status, as a way of marketing themselves to their constituents. Doctoral student in political science Leann McLaren will investigate how candidates with “invisible identities” use these identities in political campaigns to garner support and how constituencies across politically relevant identity groups respond to these strategies. She will conduct content analysis and survey experiments for her study.