Differently Divisive: Sexism, Racial Resentment, and Incongruent Candidate Support

• In Event: Gender and Voting Behavior

Abstract

To what extent do views about gender roles and sexism influence Americans' voting behavior? Gender-related issues are increasingly salient in US politics, but whether they will consolidate into a durable cleavage partly hinges on their relationship with pre-existing divides like race. Yet prior work has overwhelmingly considered racial and gender divisions separately, leaving key questions about their interplay and differences unanswered. We use a two-wave panel to study gender- and race-related positions' impacts on vote choice. Descriptively, sexism is not highly correlated with racial conservatism. However, even voters holding sexist views rarely reward sexist candidates, incentivizing most candidates to avoid such positions. By contrast, most voters penalize candidates disagreeing with them on racially charged issues. Whereas racial divides continue to structure political competition, the connection between candidate positions and vote choice on gender-related issues is less straightforward.

Authors

• Gabriel Borelli, Princeton University

• Ryan Bell, Princeton University

• Rafaela Dancygier, Princeton University

• Daniel J. Hopkins, University of Pennsylvania