Political Giving by Asian American Women and Latinas: The Limits of Resource Theories

Participation by Asian American women and Latinas as campaign contributors is usually lower than other groups, including Asian American men, Latino men, and white women – an inequality in political voice that may disproportionately affect the financial success of Asian American women and Latina candidates. I argue that financial resources – the prime suspect in most campaign contribution analyses – are limited in explaining which Asian American women and Latinas give to politics. These results pose a challenge to resource-based theories and their applicability to women from diverse and disproportionately immigrant populations. The results also suggest that factors such as party politics and citizenship should play a larger role in campaign finance studies of diverse Americans.