Biography

Kira Sanbonmatsu is Professor of Political Science at Rutgers University and Senior Scholar at the Center for American Women and Politics (CAWP) at the Eagleton Institute of Politics. Her research interests include gender, race/ethnicity, parties, public opinion, state politics, and campaign finance.

Sanbonmatsu is the coauthor of A Seat at the Table:  Congresswomen's Perspectives on Why Their Presence Matters, with Kelly Dittmar and Susan J. Carroll (Oxford University Press, 2018). She is the coauthor (with Susan J. Carroll) of More Women Can Run: Gender and Pathways to the State Legislatures (Oxford University Press, 2013). She is the coauthor (with Susan J. Carroll and Debbie Walsh) of the CAWP report, Poised to Run: Women's Pathways to the State Legislatures (2009). Sanbonmatsu is also the author of Where Women Run: Gender and Party in the American States (University of Michigan Press, 2006) and Democrats, Republicans, and the Politics of Women's Place (University of Michigan Press, 2002).

Her articles have appeared in such journals as Political Research Quarterly, Politics, Groups, and Identities AND JOURNAL OF RACE, ETHNICITY, AND POLITICS. She co-edits the CAWP Series in Gender and American Politics at the University of Michigan Press with Susan J. Carroll.

She is the lead AUTHOR of the CAWP REPORTS IN THE women, money, and politics SERIES including The Money Race for the State Legislature, Money Matters in the Fifty States, The Money Hurdle in the Race for Governor, and The Donor Gap: Raising Women’s Political Voices. SHE LEADS CAWP’s WOMEN, MONEY, & POLITICS WATCH 2024.

Sanbonmatsu received her B.A. from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and her Ph.D. from Harvard University.

C.V.

TEACHING

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Women and American Politics (UNDERGRADUATE)

Links

CAWP Women, Money, and Politics series

Women, Money, & Politics Watch 2024

The Donor Gap: Raising Women’s Political Voices

Center for American Women and Politics

Rutgers University

Google Scholar

RECENT PAPERS

Sanbonmatsu, Kira. 2024. “Understanding Black Women’s and Latinas’ Perspectives about Political Giving.” PS: Political Science & Politics.

Koprowski, Samantha, Amy Benner, and Kira Sanbonmatsu. 2024. “Agents of Change? Women Candidates and Support for Campaign Finance Reform.” Journal of Women, Politics & Policy.

Matos, Yalidy, and Kira Sanbonmatsu. 2024. “Men of Color, Linked Fate, and Support for Women of Color Candidates.” The Journal of Race, Ethnicity, and Politics. 9 (3): 600 – 619.

Sanbonmatsu, Kira, Yalidy Matos, and Stacey Greene. 2024. “The Boundaries of “Women of Color”: The Political Implications of Non-Hispanic Whites’ Perceptions of Women of Color.” Journal of Women, Politics & Policy.