Class and Representation in American Politics

Working-class Americans make up most of the labor force but hold only a small share of legislative seats. This project investigates where working-class candidates are filtered out in the electoral pipeline and whether elected officials’ class backgrounds shape policy behavior. It builds new datasets of occupational histories for roughly 50,000 state legislative candidates (2010–2024) and 22,000 state legislators (2000–2024), linked to election returns, contributions, bill sponsorship, and labor vs. business interest-group ratings. Study 1 estimates how nominating working-class candidates affects electoral success and fundraising using within-district difference-in-differences and close-primary regression discontinuity. Study 2 examines whether class background alters legislative priorities, using fixed effects and within-seat turnover. All data and code will be publicly released.