Lisa Sanchez

Interests

Teaching

Latino Politics, Race and Ethnicity, Public Policy, Immigration Policy, Congress, American Politics, American Political Institutions, Methods

Research

Lisa’s research agenda focuses on the study of American political institutions with an emphasis on the intricacies of representation in legislative bodies. In her dissertation, she examines the relationship between polarization in the U.S. congress and district demographics to better understand how congressional polarization arises, is propagated, and can be combated to help ease the gridlock that causes a sharp decline in the number of public polices generated by this branch of government. More broadly she is interested in minority legislative behavior and how the race and ethnicity of legislators at all levels (state and federal) reaps unique mixes of substantive and descriptive representation and whether these mixes reflect the minority populations they represent. At the state level, she has recently investigated the role of committee assignments for Latino state legislators linking these assignments to the procurement of particularized benefits for constituencies. In addition, Lisa studies the way in which public policies can either help or hinder representation. Her policy research focuses on immigration policy, money in politics, the politics of recession, religion and politics and health policies and how they either increase or decrease normative goods such equity and inclusion.Minority Legislative Behavior; Congressional Politics; State Legislative bodies; Representation; American Political Institutions; Racial and Ethnic Politics; Political Behavior; Money in politics; Immigration Policy; Religion and Politics; Health Policy; Polarization; Demographic Shifts; Public Policy

Courses

Scholarly Contributions

Chapters

• Sanchez, L. (2020). The sleeping giant awakens: Latinos in the 2020 election. In U.S. Election Analysis 2020: Media, Voters and the Campaign Early reflections from leading academics(pp pg. 49). https://www.electionanalysis.ws/us/.
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  Featuring 91 contributions from over 115 leading US and international academics, this publication captures the immediate thoughts, reflections and early research insights on the 2020 U.S. presidential election from the cutting edge of media and politics research.Published within eleven days of the election, these contributions are short and accessible. Authors provide authoritative analysis – including research findings and new theoretical insights – to bring readers original ways of understanding the campaign. Contributions also bring a rich range of disciplinary influences, from political science to cultural studies, journalism studies to geography.
• Sanchez, L., & Nuno, S. (2017). A Mirage in the Desert: Arizona and Latinos in the 2016 Presidential Election. In Latinos in the 2016 Election.
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  Invited contribution to to edited volume of chapters on Latinos in the 2016 election. Our contribution discusses whether Arizona was truly in play as a swing state due to Latinos in the 2016 presidential election.
• Sanchez, L., & SaNCHEZ, G. (2013). “The Entry of U.S. Latinos into High Profile Political Positions”. In Encyclopedia of Latino Issues Today.
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  Sanchez, Gabriel and Lisa M. Sanchez. 2013. “The Entry of U.S. Latinos into High Profile Political Positions” in Encyclopedia of Latino Issues Today, eds. Felipe de Ortego y Gasca, Magdaleno Manzanarez, Gilda Baeza Ortego, Alexandra Neves, J.J. Wilson. CA: Greenwood Press.
• Sanchez, L., & Sanchez, G. (2013). The Entry of U.S. Latinos into High Profile Political Positions. In Encyclopedia of Latino Issues Today.

Journals/Publications

• Sanchez, L., Rocca, M., Sanchez, G., & Clay, J. (2018). Re-examining the Relationship Between Latino Population Size and Position Taking on Latino Interests in the U.S. House of Representatives. Politics Gender and Identity.
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  Virtually all scholars of position taking in the US Congress contend that it is electorally motivated. However, thirty years of research has been decidedly mixed on whether increases in district Hispanic populations translate into greater support of Latino issues. The goal of this paper is to re-examine the extent to which Hispanic population size in U.S. House districts translates to substantive representation specific to Latino issues. It is a timely question given important changes in American politics, particularly as district-level Latino populations continue to grow and disperse, and increased polarization in Congress changes the nature of partisan politics. We analyze members of the 108th (2008-2004) and 113th (2013-2014) House of Representatives’ support of Latino issues through roll call voting, as collected by the National Hispanic Leadership Association (NHLA). A conditional relationship emerges in the 113th Congress, where Republican MCs’ support for Latino issues increase as the size of their Latino constituency increases. This relationship is more robust in the 113th than in any Congress before it, most likely triggered by heightened party polarization in Congress. The results of our analysis sheds light on the continued debate regarding the relationship between Hispanic district population size and substantive representation for Latino constituents.
• Sanchez, L., & Williams, I. (2020). Extending a Hand In Perilous Times: Beneficial Immigration Policy in the Fifty States, 2005-2012. Social Sciences Quarterly.
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  The passage of SB 1070 in 2010 focused national attention on punitive, state-level immigration legislation. Given the serious economic and budgetary consequences of the Great Recession in 2007-2009, many states began to pass increasingly punitive immigration policies as the result of economic, anti-immigrant anxieties (Ybarra, Sanchez and Sanchez 2015). What has been largely ignored, is the large and growing number of beneficial state level policies passed during the same period. We utilize an original data set from the National Conference of State Legislators (NCSL) from 2005-2012, to uncover the seemingly puzzling enactment of beneficial state immigration laws during a period of high anti-immigrant sentiment and budgetary declines in 49 of the 50 states. We employ a cross-sectional, times series analysis of the 50 states to understand the potential reasons underlying the passage of policies beneficial to U.S. immigrants both documented and undocumented. We hypothesize that the impact of immigrant populations on immigration policy is curvilinear, with states with large immigrant populations and small immigrant populations passing a greater number of beneficial immigration policies than those states in the middle. In the first case, the population is sizable enough to exert pressure on the political system in that state and in the second case, the immigrant population is small enough as to not exacerbate anti-immigrant sentiments in times of budgetary constraint.
• Sanchez, L., Moreau, J., & Nuno, S. (2018). An Intersectional Analysis of Latino LGBTQ Political Participation and Group Conciousness. Political Research Quarterly.
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  This research compares LGBTQ Latino and non-LGBTQ Latino political participation. Because of challenges with sample size, surveys that explore LGBTQ issues do so within the context of the dominant racial and ethnic framework. By contrast, this research is based on a survey of 3,000 Latino/a respondents, 2,000 registered voters, and 1,000 non-registered voters. We argue that an intersectional approach provides the opportunity to improve our understanding of how the multiple identities of Latino LGBTQ individuals affects the amount of their political participation. In particular, we argue that membership in two minority groups affords LGBTQ Latino individuals dual forms of linked fate that each perform a protective role in buttressing levels of engagement among this minority population. We find that LGBTQ Latino respondents are more likely to engage in political activities than their non-LGBTQ, Latino counterparts. We also find evidence that linked fate is at work along two planes--those accruing to membership with the Latino community and to the LGBTQ community. This study contributes to the theorizing of linked fate and political participation by indicating the additive nature of different forms of linked fate within dual minority populations.
• Shmargad, Y., & Sanchez, L. (2019). Social Media Influence and Electoral Competition. Social Science Computer Review.
• Sanchez, L., Huyser, K. R., Medeiros Perez, J., Ybarra, V., & Hellwege, J. M. (2017). Differential Influence of the Great Recession on Political Participation Among Race and Ethnic Groups. Social Sciences Quarterly. doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/ssqu.12399
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  ObjectiveOur study seeks to understand the role of perceived economic stress of the Great Recession on political participation among blacks, whites, and Latinos.MethodsWe use the 2012 Collaborative Multi‐Racial Political Study and negative binomial regression to examine the impact of financial hardship on black, Hispanic, and white political participation.ResultsWe find that political participation among whites is unaffected by the Great Recession and is largely motivated by political interest. Blacks are mobilized by financial hardship even after controlling for political enthusiasm and linked fate. Hispanics have the lowest level of political participation.ConclusionOverall, we conclude that the Great Recession did affect political behavior but differently across race and ethnic groups; specifically, Hispanics were least likely to politically engage if they experienced negative consequences of the Great Recession.
• Sanchez, L., Ybarra, V., & Sanchez, G. (2015). Anti-immigrant Anxieties in State Policy The Great Recession and Punitive Immigration Policy in the American States, 2005–2012. State Politics and Policy Quarterly, 16(3), 313-339. doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/1532440015605815
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  The Great Recession of late 2007 through 2009 had profound negative economic impacts on the U.S. states, with 49 states experiencing revenue decreases in their 2009 budgets representing more than $67.2 billion USD. Also during this period, states enacted a record number of laws related to immigrants residing in their states. We make use of data from the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) to examine punitive immigration policy enactment from 2005 to 2012 and conduct a state comparative study using cross-sectional time-series analysis to examine the potential ways in which the economic recession and changing demographics in the states have impacted punitive state immigration policy making. We hypothesize that although anti-immigrant anxieties are driven in part by economic insecurity, they are also impacted by the presence of a large or growing proportion of racialized immigrants. We find that increases in state Hispanic populations and state economic stressors associated with the recession have both led to a greater number of enacted punitive state immigration policies. In addition, we find that changes in the non-Hispanic white populations in the states are also impacting the expression of anti-immigrant attitudes in state policy during this period.

Case Studies

• Sanchez, L., Amlani, S., Rocca, M. S., & Hellwege, J. M. (2016. Crony Capitalism, Corruption and the Economy in the State of New Mexico(p. 66).
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  The purpose of this paper is to examine crony capitalism in the state of New Mexico. Our focus is on the relationship between business and government, primarily because the private sector is integral to a state’s economic growth. Furthermore, New Mexico is an interesting case to examine crony capitalism due to the state economy’s heavy reliance on public funding. Indeed, New Mexico’s economy is more dependent on the federal government than any other state in the nation. Because so much of the state’s economy is dependent on public funds, the potential for crony capitalistic behavior is high. Sadly, New Mexico continues to score near the bottom of reputable watchdog and political reporter state corruption indexes, and has been rocked by a number of high profile corruption cases in recent years. The most recent—occurring only months before the release of this report—involves former Secretary of State Dianna Duran, who resigned from office and accepted a plea deal related to charges of fraud, embezzlement, money laundering, and other crimes related to allegedly converting thousands of dollars in campaign contributions to her personal use in 2013 and 2014.Using the CED’s national study as a guide, the purpose of this project will be threefold: (1) to examine the conditions that create the potential for crony capitalism in New Mexico; (2) to conduct brief studies of cases where crony capitalistic behavior seemed to be present; and (3) to suggest policy reforms to lessen the potential for crony capitalism. We argue, first, that crony capitalism in the state of New Mexico is defined mostly by rent extraction rather than rent seeking. The long history of political corruption in the state, coupled with its refusal to enact rule changes that discourage corrupt behavior, has created incentive structures that all but force the business community to engage in crony capitalistic behavior.Second, we argue that crony capitalism is not a binary condition; rather, it exists along a continuum. Some private-public sector relationships, like some tax subsidies, are legitimate policy choices that can, under the right conditions, successfully grow the economy. Others, like predatory lending practices, clearly benefit only a small section of society while spreading significant economic costs to the general public. Still others, like pay-to-play scandals, are illegal and corrupt, and have tremendous short and long- term economic costs on the state.
• Sanchez, L., Rocca, M., Amlani, S., & Helwege, J. (2016. Crony Capitalism, Corruption and the Economy in the State of New Mexico(pp -).
• Sanchez, L., Morin, J., & Sanchez, G. (2011. "Connecting the Dots: The Role of Financial Contributions in New Mexico Health Policy."(p. 39).
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  Healthcare policy has dominated legislative activity in New Mexico in recent years. Not surprisingly, several industries have been highly active in the healthcare policymaking process within the state over the past decade.Between 2000 and 2010, various healthcare industries contributed a combined total of $4,863,088 to candidates running for political office in New Mexico. Furthermore, contributions from these industries have increased substantially over time, from $268,096 in 2000 to $1.3 million in 2010. It is therefore likely that this contribution trend will continue at an exponential rate. This report seeks to shed light on the important question of whether the rise in campaign contributions from various industries in the state has had an impact on policy outcomes.

Others

• Sanchez, L., & Norrander, B. (2018, October). In Arizona’s nasty, hard-fought 2018 Senate race, it’s all going to come down to turnout. London School of Economics Blog.
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  London School of Economics Blog Post on the 2018 Election in Arizona1wza