New Voters, New Attitudes: How Gen Z Views Women and Minority Candidates

• In Event: When We Were Young: Gender, Age, and Politics

Abstract

A vast literature suggests that voters infer a great deal from the visible characteristics of candidates such as race and gender. Extant research further finds that minority and women candidates suffer at the ballot-box as a direct result. Black candidates are disadvantaged by white voters, while women candidates are caught in a “double-bind” whereby voters have expectations of them they do not extend to their male counterparts. In this manuscript, we argue that the penalties women and minority candidates face may be ameliorated by the attitudes and preferences of the youngest generation of voters. Members of Generation Z have come of age when matters of race and gender have come to the forefront of American politics. Simultaneously, the slate of candidates being offered each election cycle has grown younger, more diverse, and increasingly female. We investigate the ways in which young Americans approach these candidates using a unique survey of Generation Z respondents. We find they view women and minority candidates more favorably than their white, male counterparts, even after accounting for partisanship. These results are driven by minorities and women responding favorably to candidates who represent them descriptively, while white and male respondents do not differentiate considerably between the candidates based on race or gender. Notably, however, we do not find that members of Generation Z prefer candidates who are similarly young. These findings suggest the possibility in future elections that race and gender may become an asset for minority and women politicians.

Authors

• Jared McDonald, Stanford University

• Melissa Deckman, Washington College