Responding to Racial Resentment: How Racial Resentment Influences Legislative Behavior

• Date: 01 December 2020
• Published date: 01 December 2020
• DOI: 10.1177/1065912919857826
• Subject Matter: Articles

https://doi.org/10.1177/1065912919857826

Political Research Quarterly

2020, Vol. 73(4) 805 –818

© 2019 University of Utah

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DOI: 10.1177/1065912919857826

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Article

During President Barack Obama’s first State of the Union,

Rep. Joe Wilson (R-SC) broke with House rules of deco-

rum by yelling “You lie!” when the President said that his

health care policy would not cover those who illegally

immigrated to the United States. What is unique about this

is not that a member of the opposing party would disagree

or condemn the president. Rather, it was the undercurrent

of disrespect and de-legitimization of the nation’s first

black president in Wilson’s outburst that stood out as dis-

tinct from the criticism faced by past presidents. This was

not the first nor last time Obama’s legitimacy would be

questioned by Republican members of Congress. While

some may argue that this was politics as usual, to the for-

mer chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, Rep. G.K.

Butterfield (D-NC), the root of this behavior was clear:

I understand how government works and I know the

deference traditionally given to the president that you do not

see now [for President Obama]. You put all of these incidents

together—questioning his citizenship, the Muslim stuff, the

idea that he has been infected with anticolonists’ views by

his father he barely knew—and you have a strong

circumstantial case. It certainly smells like racism.1

The claim that the Obama presidency was viewed

through a racial lens is nothing new. Several studies

have convincingly shown that racial resentment among

the electorate not only shaped support of Obama but

also influenced support for policies closely associated

with him (Hutchings 2009; Kinder and Dale-Riddle

2012; Piston 2010; Tesler 2016; Tesler and Sears 2010).

In fact, we have long known that racial bias alters parti-

sanship and policy attitudes among the electorate

(Carmines and Stimson 1989; Edsall and Edsall 1992;

Gilens 1999; Key 1949; Kinder and Sanders 1996; Sears

1993; Winter 2008).

However, despite this robust scholarship, little is

known about how racial bias in the electorate shapes the

behavior of members of Congress. To fill this void, we

consider whether constituency attitudes influence the

press releases issued by legislators on racially tinged top-

ics, such as attacking the first black president. In answer-

ing these questions, we are able to gain greater insight

into the relationship between race and representation.

857826PRQXXX10.1177/1065912919857826Political Research QuarterlyGarcia and Stout

research-article2019

1Oberlin College, OH, USA

2Oregon State University, Corvallis, USA

Corresponding Author:

Jennifer R. Garcia, Department of Politics, Oberlin College, Room

216, Rice Hall, 10 N. Professor St., Oberlin, OH 44074, USA.

Email: Jennifer.Garcia@oberlin.edu

Responding to Racial Resentment:

How Racial Resentment Influences

Legislative Behavior

Jennifer R. Garcia1 and Christopher T. Stout2

Abstract

Despite the growing body of scholarship urging congressional scholars to consider the racialization of Congress,

little attention has been given to understanding how racial resentment impacts legislative behavior. To fill this gap,

we ask if and how racial resentment within a member’s home district influences the positions she takes on racially

tinged issues in her press releases. Due to constituent influence, we expect legislators from districts with high levels

of racial resentment to issue racially tinged press releases. Through an automated content analysis of more than fifty

four thousand press releases from almost four hundred U.S. House members in the 114th Congress (2015–2017), we

show that Republicans from districts with high levels of racial resentment are more likely to issue press releases that

attack President Barack Obama. In contrast, we find no evidence of racial resentment being positively associated with

another prominent Democratic white elected official, Hillary Clinton. Our results suggest that one reason Congress

may remain racially conservative even as representatives’ cycle out of office may be attributed to the electoral process.

Keywords

American politics, racial resentment, legislative behavior