Keywords

2024 US Presidential election; Kamala Harris; Race; Gender

Abstract

Presidential elections do more than choose a leader; they give us an inside look at how identity shapes voters’ choices. The 2024 election made this especially clear. Looking at Kamala Harris, who represents multiple underrepresented identities, we see a candidate who is not only a woman and a person of color, but specifically a woman of color running at the national level. This election is the first time we see several minority identities in a candidate in a presidential race, and what makes this unique is that, at the national level, it is much harder for candidates to be fully immersed in communities. Because of this, this thesis explores the intersectional dynamics of race and gender in shaping Americans' voting behavior, specifically, whether men or women are more likely to vote for a presidential candidate who shares their racial or ethnic background. Based on the existing literature, the expectation was that women of color would show the strongest identity-based support. Using data from the 2024 American National Election Studies (ANES) to examine how race, gender, and their intersection shaped support for Harris. Logistic regression models were used to identify identity-based voting patterns, while also incorporating major political, social, and economic factors such as partisanship, ideology, education, income, and community type. The results show that gender alone does not predict support for Harris. These findings address a major gap by showing how intersectionality functions in a presidential election and contribute to a deeper understanding of how voters respond to candidates who reflect multiple dimensions of identity.

Thesis Completion Year

2026

Thesis Completion Semester

Spring

Thesis Chair

Jensen, Alexander

College

College of Sciences

Department

Politics, Security, and International Affairs

Thesis Discipline

Political Science

Language

English

Access Status

Open Access

Length of Campus Access

None

Campus Location

Orlando (Main) Campus

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Rights Statement

In Copyright