We Choose You

How Black Voters Decide Which Candidates to Support

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In We Choose You, Julian J. Wamble investigates the sophisticated process of Black voter candidate selection. Contrary to the common assumption that Black voters will support Black politicians, Wamble explores what considerations, outside of race, partisanship, and gender, Black voters use to choose certain representatives over others. The book complicates our view of candidate selection, expands our understanding of identity's role in the representative-constituent paradigm, and provides a framework through which scholars can determine a candidates preferability for other identity groups. Wamble uses original experimental tests on Black respondents to prove that Black voters prefer a politician, regardless of race, who shows a commitment to prioritizing the racial group's interest through personal sacrifice. Novel and timely, this book makes an important contribution to our understanding of Black political behavior and will only gain salience as the significance of the Black vote increases in upcoming elections.