Are Minority and Women Candidates Penalized by Party Politics? Race, Gender, and Access to Party Support

Abstract

Racial/ethnic minorities and women continue to be underrepresented in public office in the United States. Here, we evaluate the role of general election political party support for women and minorities in structuring these inequalities, as a key part of general election success is support from party networks. With detailed data on party support and the demographics of congressional candidates, we use two difference-in-differences strategies to leverage within-district and candidate-constant change over time. Thus, we are able to separate the effect of race/ethnicity and gender from other factors we demonstrate to be associated with party support. We find that, all else equal, Democratic and Republican minority nominees do not receive less support than their white counterparts. We also find that white women receive more party support from Democrats than Democratic men or minority women in the general election and that this support is more responsive to changes in electoral competitiveness. These findings suggest that party elites may provide additional support to candidates from underrepresented groups in the general election to broaden their appeal to voters.

The Party's Primary Preferences: Race, Gender, and Party Support of Congressional Primary Candidates

“…Lastly, the limited research on party support of minorities in general elections has drawn differing conclusions. Scholarship on party support of minority candidates has found both that parties discriminate against minority candidates (Theilmann and Wilhite ) and also that parties (specifically the Republican Party) are more supportive of minority candidates relative to their white counterparts (Fraga and Hassell ). In short, there is no research that analyzes party support of minorities during the primary election process, and research about party support of minority candidates during the general election is inconsistent in its findings.…”

“…Women running in Democratic primaries outraise men, but the same is not true for women running in Republican primaries (Kitchens and Swers ). Moreover, looking at the general election, compared to men, Democratic white women appear to receive more support from Democratic Party elites (Fraga and Hassell )…”

“…), or as a way to win over racially liberal white voters who are receptive to minority candidacies (Fraga and Leal ). In general elections, whereas Democratic Party elites have neither promoted nor discriminated against minority candidates, minority GOP general election candidates receive higher levels of support from party elites than white candidates (Fraga and Hassell ). Some work suggests racially conservative Republicans may be more supportive of minority candidates who buck stereotypical expectations about black behavior (Karpowitz et al.…”

“…As we note in more detail later, there is also disagreement about how much parties support underrepresented candidates in the general election (Fraga and Hassell ; Theilmann and Wilhite ).…”

“…At the same time, minority Democrats have criticized the party for not being more supportive of minority candidates (Herndon ), whereas Republican party elites have consistently emphasized the need to reach out and support minority candidates (Republican National Committee ; Wright Rigueur ). There is even some research that has found that Republicans are more supportive of minority candidates in the general election (Fraga and Hassell ).…”