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The Election of African Americans and Latinos To the U.S. House of Representatives, 1972-1994

University of South Carolina

Past studies have shown that racially polarized voting results in African American and Latino congressional candidates rarely winning election outside of majority-minority districts. Analyz ing U.S. House of Representatives elections from 1972 through 1994 confirms these findings and shows that race, rather than socioeconomic factors highly correlated with race, accounts for racial polarization in congressional elections. Nonracial district characteristics bear virtually no relationship to the race of a district's representative. Even if socioeconomic differences among African Americans, Latinos, and Whites decline substantially, race will continue to play an important role in American elections. If the Supreme Court's decisions in Shaw v. Reno and its progeny reduce the number of majority-minority districts, then the number of minority repre sentatives probably will decline as well.

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