| Summary: | <p>It has long been assumed that when African American candidates compete in majority-white election environments, they adopt a 'deracilaised' campaign model that discards their racial identity in order to win white support. This paper finds that the ‘deracialised’ campaign model is conceptually limited and not substantiated empirically. The thesis proposes three alternative models of racial appeal, which acknowledge the ability of black candidates to preserve black racial identity while appealing to whites for support. These models are applied in case studies of several significant senatorial campaigns (Brooke 1966, Gantt 1990, Braun 1992, Steele 2006, Ford 2006), which have been sourced using newspaper articles, television and radio advertisements, printed campaign literature, internal campaign documents, opinion polls, demographic data, and fifty interviews with candidates and campaign staff.</p>
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