Victoria M. DeFrancesco Soto
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Dr. Victoria M. DeFrancesco Soto received her Ph.D. from Duke University and was recently named one of the top 12 scholars in the country by Diverse magazine. Her research on political behavior has been widely published in scholarly journals and cited in the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, Time, and POLITICO. Fluent in both English and Spanish, Victoria provides political analysis on both US politics and its implications forcountries abroad.

Victoria’s research analyzes how social identities shape political behavior. Her academic work focuses on: campaigns and elections, political marketing, race and ethnic politics, and immigration. She also serves on the editorial board of Politics,Groups, and Identities. She is currently working on a book manuscript that analyzes the role of inter-group identities and micro-targeting in political campaigns.

In the media sphere, Victoria contributes to various national and international media outlets. She is a regular political analyst for Univision and CNN en Espanol. In 2008 and 2010, she served as a primary expert and analyst for CNN en Espanol’s election coverage. Victoria also appears on MSNBC, FoxNews, NPR, and Sirius XM. In her media analysis Victoria is passionate about making social science relatable to real time political events. She is a regular blogger for POLITICO’S Arena, Huffington Post, and the Daily Grito.

Victoria is a Fellow at the Center for Governance and Politics at the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin. She also serves as the Director of Communications for Latino Decisions and is a Senior Fellow at the Bernard Center for Women, Politics, and Public Policy.

Victoria is a proud native of Cochise County in Southern Arizona. She is of Italian-Jewish-Mexican heritage and lives in beautiful Austin, Texas.

Blog Entries by Victoria M. DeFrancesco Soto

Latina Moms in the 2012 Election

Posted January 7, 2012 | 10:32:33 (EST)

Soccer moms were the go to gals in the 1996 Presidential election. Eight years later George W. Bush again looked to the ladies, zeroing in on security moms. In the last presidential election a hockey mom herself was put at the top of the ticket. And leading up to the...

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Perry in a Different Light: Tejanos and Education Policy

Posted October 6, 2011 | 17:54:24 (EST)

Everything in life is relative. Within the Republican presidential field Governor Rick Perry has come to be the Latino friendly candidate. Specifically, he has been cast as a Latino education advocate for signing into law an in-state college tuition bill for undocumented persons. While the Texas governor may be the...

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Rick Perry: Fred Thompson and Barry Goldwater's Lovechild

Posted September 1, 2011 | 17:36:00 (EST)

Texas Governor Rick Perry is a Marlboro man -- tough, rugged and handsome. While he may be the strong type, he is not the strong and silent type. Rick Perry does not keep his thoughts to himself, and those thoughts are most definitely unfiltered. Perry is part Hollywood tough guy...

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Perry and the Blues Brothers: On a Mission From God

Posted July 26, 2011 | 13:40:04 (EST)

Like the Blues Brothers, Texas Governor Rick Perry is on a mission from God. Elwood Blues pleaded "Our Lady of Blessed Acceleration don't fail me now" and now Perry is pleading "Our Lady of Blessed Social Conservatism, don't fail me now." Both men put their faith in the driver's seat....

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The GOP 2012 White Flag Strategy

Posted July 8, 2011 | 19:05:00 (EST)

The GOP is the party of business and financial investments. This prowess might just translate into deciding to forego a risky investment, the 2012 presidential election. The fractured Republican field, together with Obama's fundraising freight train, may lead Republican donors to simply raise the white flag and wait it out...

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Latino Love: Bush v. Perry

Posted June 10, 2011 | 16:13:02 (EST)

Rick Perry is no George W. Bush. They may share the cowboy boots, but their similarities are only leather deep. The most striking difference between Perry and Bush is their relationship with Latinos. Bush had a lot of Latino love and that love pushed him over the edge in the...

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Arizona's SB 1070 Paper Anniversary

Posted April 26, 2011 | 11:26:03 (EST)

On April 23, 2010 Arizona Governor Jan Brewer signed into law SB1070. From that moment on, Arizona and the rest of the country solidified its hard swing to the right. The Arizona law provided a corner stone to the national Tea Party movement and an all-encompassing anti-immigrant mood....

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Bachmann Is Not a Poor Man's Palin

Posted February 7, 2011 | 16:38:13 (EST)

Side by side, Sarah Palin appears more polished and media savvy than Michelle Bachmann. Palin's outfits are sharper and her social media outreach is one of the best there is. However, not too long ago, Palin was a little rough around the edges. The McCain campaign essentially pulled a What...

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The 2010 Negative Ad Rodeo

Posted October 27, 2010 | 17:22:43 (EST)

Eight seconds is all that stands between a bull rider and his prize belt buckle. If they can ride that nasty bull without getting bucked off before the eight-second buzzer then they are in the clear. Campaigns are a lot like bull riding. Survival depends on being able to hang...

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Race Baiting Rumblings

Posted August 31, 2010 | 11:48:50 (EST)

At an explicit level, Glenn Beck's "Restoring Honor" rally did not have anything to do with race. At a symbolic level, "Restoring Honor" was ripe with racial meaning. Various elements of the event were subtly but intimately interlaced with racial innuendo.

The date itself, the anniversary of Martin Luther...

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Señorita Palin's Cojones

Posted August 17, 2010 | 15:31:29 (EST)

Sarah Palin's cojones outburst had nothing to do with President Obama, or Arizona Governor Jan Brewer, or immigration for that matter. It was quite simply all about Sarah. It was about Sarah Palin's long-term image construction project where she simultaneously fosters feminine and masculine stereotypes.

Since bursting onto the...

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FLOTUS' Flub

Posted August 10, 2010 | 14:16:52 (EST)

Michelle Obama has been so likeable because she reminded ordinary American women of themselves. She was a working mom, grew up in a blue-collar household, and didn't let her husband get out of line. Her preference for J. Crew over Prada said it all.

Up until her vacation to Spain...

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Governor Brewer's Happy Dance

Posted July 29, 2010 | 16:36:34 (EST)

Arizona Governor Jan Brewer is a happy woman. The ruling yesterday is a political Godsend for the governor and the state's slate of staunchly anti-immigrant Republican candidates. The rationale behind the drafting, passing, and signing of S.B. 1070 was that the Federal government was not doing its part in regulating...

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America's Evita? Sarah Palin

Posted July 27, 2010 | 13:07:36 (EST)

At first blush Argentina's Eva Perón and Sarah Palin appear as extreme opposites. Evita is synonymous with the welfare state and big labor. She was and continues to be the face of the populist left. Sarah is synonymous with the Tea Party and the evangelical base. She is the face...

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Utah's Prelude to Anchor Baby Mama Drama

Posted July 21, 2010 | 18:05:13 (EST)

The list distributed last week by an anonymous Utah group providing information on potential illegal immigrants has caused a general uproar - lack of privacy, leaking of sensitive information, suggestions of vigilante justice, etc.

However, the list issue that has received the least attention is the one that will...

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Immigration: Don't Hate the Player, Hate the Game

Posted July 15, 2010 | 15:52:03 (EST)

The Arizona immigration bill is an exemplar of the type of immigration policies that focus on the immigrant. There is not much novel about the Arizona law except that the immigrant, or anyone suspected of being one, is sought out a bit more aggressively.

Immigration Laws following the last...

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