A different kind of representation: Black and Latino descriptive representation and the role of ideological cuing

Most scholarship on minority descriptive representation focuses on whether minority legislators are "more" supportive of minority concerns than white legislators but does not address how descriptive representatives differ in the use of decision-making cues when advocating for minority interests. Drawing on data from four Congresses and comparing two sets of minority group representatives with their white counterparts and each other, the authors show that an important effect of descriptive representation is that racial/ethnic minority representatives are uniquely influenced in their advocacy of minority interests by cues that stand apart from the conventional liberal/conservative political ideological frame.