Race and the politics of close elections

摘要: Abstract Elections between black and white candidates tend to involve close margins high turnout. Using a novel dataset of municipal vote returns during the rise mayors in U.S. cities, this paper establishes new facts about turnout competition interracial elections. In South, but not North, victories were more likely than losses, involved higher losses be followed by subsequent victories. These results are consistent with model which historical exclusion Southern blacks from politics made them disproportionately sensitive mobilization efforts political elites, leading candidate advantage