35 of them are old white men, the rest are women.
The unfettering of big money also makes it harder to elect minority
candidates. “Why is it that the Congress we have right now doesn’t look
anything like the rest of the country? A lot of it has to do with our
campaign-finance laws and the fact that there’s so much money in the
system and you need so much money to run for office,” said Lawrence
Norden, deputy director of the Democracy Program and the Brennan Center
for Justice. “There’s no question that it makes it more difficult for
people who aren’t connected to these very wealthy donors to run for
office.”
Candidates raise money from people they know, Norden explained, and American social circles are deeply segregated. Three-quarters of white Americans, for example, don’t have any non-white friends. Neighborhoods remain segregated by race and class. “If you don’t have a lot of money to begin with, you’re not interacting with the people who can provide that money,” said Norden.
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