Priming Gender: Campaigning on Women's Issues in U.S. Senate Elections

Abstract

The gender gap has been an important feature of American elections since 1980. Yet, most explanations for the effects of gender on voting behavior focus on differences between men and women without taking account of how campaign strategies may serve to highlight or mask these differences. I examine how Senate candidates act strategically in deciding whether and how to target women voters. I find that candidates make these decisions based largely on two factors: (1) the importance of these issues to the state's voters and (2) whether gender gaps had been decisive in previous statewide contests. Analysis of exit-poll data indicates that when campaigns focused more on women's issues, women became more likely to vote Democratic while the vote choices of men were unaffected. Thus, campaign strategies do appear to influence the importance of gender differences in voting behavior.

Gender Targeting in Political Advertisements

“…9 vote for that candidate. If the group appeals of identity-based targeting are not as crucial as we believe, we may see the ad prime particular issues or image dimensions related to the communicated issues or image characteristics, as Schaffner (2005) does. However, as we argue earlier, we believe that these appeals prime identity, which improves candidate evaluations and the probability that a targeted individual will vote for the candidate.…”

“…There have been many demonstrations of issue based-targeting, where the campaign identifies a particular issue, and it primes voters to consider that issue more in their overall evaluations of a candidate (e.g., Hillygus and Shields 2008;Johnston et al 1992). In particular, Schaffner (2005) finds that in districts where women are a significant portion of the electorate, candidates emphasize women's issues, which then in turn improves the likelihood that women voters will 2 Tolleson-Reinhart 14 argues that group consciousness includes an identification with others that are similar, a positive affect towards them, and an understanding of interdependence with like-others. 9 vote for that candidate.…”

“…Using a website targeted at women, we posit and test a theory of identity priming, where these identity-targeted ads prime group membership and result in changes in vote choice. We focus on the effects of targeting female voters for several reasons: women make up over half of the voting electorate and are thus an important group for any candidate or campaign to attract (Burns, Schlozman, and Verba 2001;Schaffner 2005). Furthermore, recent attention has been drawn to the importance of courting 3 female voters (Abdullah 2012;Anderson, Lewis, and Baird 2011;Casserly 2012;Cassidy 2012), and women have been shown to use their identity in their vote decision (Brians 2005;Dolan 1998;Paolino 1995;Plutzer and Zipp 1996).…”

Battleground Texas: Gendered Media Framing of the 2014 Texas Gubernatorial Race

“…Campaigning on women's issues is not a new strategy for candidates of both genders, but the two main political parties approach it differently. Schaffner (2005) observed that candidates focus more on female issues when the state's population is more concerned with them, and women become more likely to vote as Democrats when women's issues are at the forefront of the campaign's focus. A former senator in the Texas legislature, Davis decided to run for the open governor's seat after Rick Perry announced he would not seek another term.…”

Gender, Party, and Political Communication in the 114th Congress

“…This could be due to the perception of Republican-owned traitstied to issues of national securitybeing more important to address Smith et al, 2007). In the Senate, Schaffner (2005) found Democratic women more likely to campaign on education, health care, and childcare than Democratic men. In the House, Democratic women were more likely to campaign on social issues and abortion than Democratic men; Republican women were more likely than Republican men to campaign on abortion .…”