Diversity politics: The effects of elite rhetoric and issue racialization on support for descriptive representation

Abstract Although the importance of diversity is hotly contested in U.S. politics, political parties have increasingly embraced descriptive representation as an important ideal. Indeed, in recent years both Democratic and Republican political leaders have even publicly committed to selecting underrepresented candidates for powerful roles. We examine how different types of elite rhetoric promoting racial diversity can influence evaluations of the government body, the selected candidate, and general efforts to diversify politics. With two survey experiments, we find that rhetoric emphasizing the value of diverse representation increases support for political representation of racialized minorities only when the policy domain itself is racialized. But when the policy is not racialized, even positive rhetoric about diverse representation has negative effects on evaluations of the selection process and candidate. Furthermore, leaders' commitment to select an underrepresented candidate has largely negative effects, regardless of policy racialization. This work holds important implications for how elite rhetoric can contribute to normative goals of increasing diverse political representation while minimizing undue negative evaluations of political leaders and institutional legitimacy.