Big Money, Bigger Impact: Why Focusing on Four States is Better Than Fifty

Nidhi a -

Exciting news ahead… My research is getting a bit of a makeover! Originally, I set out to analyze campaign finance and Latino representation across the entire country, but honestly that was a bit too ambitious. Instead of tackling all 50 states, I decided to zoom into Arizona, Texas, Florida, and California. The reason: these four states are where Latino communities and immigration battles are particularly intense. This shift makes my research more focused, manageable, and hopefully more impactful. 

With this change, I had to readdress some of the work I’d already progressed on. I had to rewrite my introduction and literature review to reflect my new, more targeted scope. Thankfully, this wasn’t a scrap everything situation but instead a more strategic pivot. Rather than broader generalizations about national trends on policies, I’m now diving deeper into state level data. I’ve been able to unpack how corporate PACs in the agricultural and private prison industries shape policies that affect Latino communities disproportionately across my four focus states. This revision was also much needed as it helped me tighten up my language and make arguments more grammatically direct. 

This week, I also met with my peer partner to go over our research progress. We updated each other on the changes we’ve made and turns out she made a HUGE shift in her project too! Having a second set of eyes really helped and I was able to catch some weak spots in my framing and she suggested a great way that I can clarify my focus even further by looking at the agriculture and prison industry. It was also just nice to catch up with a classmate I haven’t seen in a while. 

Next week, I’m hoping to take another look at my methodology section and start looking at how campaign funding data is organized. I’ll be focusing on major corporate PACs, SuperPACs and wealthy individuals that have poured funds into immigration related policies. Probably going to be a few months staring at spreadsheets, FEC filings, and LOTS of numbers but I’m excited the research is underway!

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    brittany_defoe
    This sounds like a super interesting project! I am excited to check in and see what you find out. I think the states that you picked offer a wide representation while still allowing for you to hone your focus. One question I wonder is if you will see a partisan impact within the Latino community and campaign finance? Often times, Latinos are seen by campaigns as one giant voting bloc which has proven to not be the case in recent election cycles so I am curious if you will come across differences between Latino groups in the different states you are looking at.
    February 18, 2025 at 2:16 pm - Reply
    Travis May
    I'm glad that you have been able to narrow/refine your project parameters a bit! To Mrs. DeFoe's point, do you think there is any possibility that different groups broadly categorized as "Latino" are perceived differently in the contexts of these different states? I imagine, for example, that Cuban Americans in Miami have a very different lived experience than people of Central American heritage in Texas, etc.
    February 20, 2025 at 3:06 pm - Reply

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