The Minnesota Daily echoed some of Sorensen’s preliminary findings, which focused on working-class Americans. The paper reports that “trust relates to congressional representation of class, race and gender in most cases, suggesting people’s trust in the government will increase when more elected representatives come from a working-class background.”

Ashley Sorensen graduated from Beloit College in 2018 with a degree in Political Science. She wrote a senior thesis titled “Intersectionality in Campaign Finance and Elections: The Impact of Gender and Race on Money Raised in U.S. General House Elections from 2010 to 2016.”  She won a prestigious Harry S. Truman Scholarship in 2017.