Brenda Choresi Carter, Director of the Reflective Democracy Campaign,joins us to talk about their new Who Runs In America?report, which examined local, state and national candidates during elections in 2012 and 2014. According to the study, there is a "severe under-representation of both women and people of color at all levels of elected government," and through this study, the organization attempts to take the first steps toward finding an answer as to why this is.
"Americans can’t elect more women and people of color into office, because they’re not on the ballot," says this summaryof the report.
Georgia and Alabama were near the top of the list for having higher-than-average numbers of people of color on ballots.
Tennessee and Alabama were near the bottom of the list for having lower-than-average numbers of female candidates on ballots.
Read the full reporthere, and download the report's datasetshere.