Abstract
Do Black electoral victories affect the degree of racial bias among White Americans? This paper examines changes in explicit racial attitudes and Implicit Association Test (IAT) scores following close local elections between Black and White candidates. I construct a novel dataset linking election outcomes to candidate race and implement a regression discontinuity design, supplemented by difference-in-differences approaches. Anti-Black bias among White respondents increases following narrow victories by Black candidates, relative to close losses. I discuss possible interpretations of this pattern and consider how these findings inform our understanding of racial attitudes in response to political change.