Moms in the House: The Raced-Gendered Experience of Mothers Running for Political Office

7% of current House Representatives are mothers of children under 18, with only 2% being moms of color, marking a record but stark underrepresentation compared to the 17.8% of the US population composed of mothers with young children. Ethnic minority mothers, especially Black and Latina, face even greater underrepresentation. Thus, there are far fewer moms in formal political positions of power compared to their share of the population. In my project, I ask: how does the identity of motherhood intersect with racial/ethnic identities of women candidates to shape their political opportunities? I argue that there are specific opportunities and constraints afforded to mothers which may vary based on their racial and partisan status. To date, this hypothesis has been difficult to test, as much of the experimental research in political science that has investigated moms running for office generally use white candidate photos or do not indicate racial status, and consequently we know very little about moms of color running for office. I investigate this question using an intersectional, mixed method approach including a qualitative set of case studies and a survey experiment. In the case study phase of the project, I analyze campaign output materials of six non-incumbent mothers with children under 18 with different race and partisanship identities, who won Congressional elections between 2018 – 2022. Preliminary results suggest factors such as candidate race, opponent type (e.g. mom vs. childless woman) and district type may play important roles in determining the extent of, and which maternal appeals a candidate may rely on in their campaign. Existing maternal appeals, like ‘grizzly mom’ have been identified in the data, in addition to emerging, unexplored appeals such as Maternal Grief and Model-Minority Motherhood which may be distinct to particular groups. The next phase of the project will manipulate these appeal types in a survey experiment to understand how successful maternal strategy types are among different voter attributes. The goal of the project is to identify how moms running for Congress select maternal appeals to appeal to voters, and how voter preferences constrain these options for moms with different backgrounds.