Introduction

Summary

Barack Obama's presidential success created a fallacy surrounding how Black voters choose politicians to support. In the wake of his success, many Black politicians unsuccessfully worked to garner Black support using tactics similar to Obama. This chapter breaks down the conventional wisdom that come out of Obama's success and asks motivating question of this manuscript: What considerations outside of race, partisanship, and gender do Black voters make when choosing a politician to support? I introduce my original concept of community commitment and juxtapose it with existing concepts to explain its unique contribution and ability to explain Black voter candidate selection.