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

Abstract

Party support has a strong influence on candidate success in the primary. What remains unexplored is whether party actions during the primary are biased along racial and gender lines. Using candidate demographic data at the congressional level and measures of party support for primary candidates, we test whether parties discriminate against women and minority candidates in congressional primaries and also whether parties are strategic in their support of minority candidates in certain primaries. Our findings show parties are not biased against minority candidates and also that white women candidates receive more support from the Democratic Party than do other types of candidates. Our findings also suggest that parties do not appear to strategically support minority candidates in districts with larger populations of minorities. Lastly, we also find no significant differences in the effects of party support on the likelihood of success in the primary by candidate race or gender.

Who Controls the Purse Strings? A Longitudinal Study of Gender and Donations in Canadian Politics

“…More recent research finds little evidence of gender differences in political fundraising. Under some conditions, the advantage in fact goes to women candidates (Hassell and Visalvanich 2019; Kitchens and Swers 2016), although there is some indication that women candidates have to work harder than their male counterparts to raise those funds (Crespin and Deitz 2010). Indeed, women consistently cite fundraising as a barrier, noting that they are disadvantaged by male-dominated social networks that help generate campaign contributions (Barber, Butler, and Preece 2016; Lawless and Fox 2010).…”

Identity in Campaign Finance and Elections: The Impact of Gender and Race on Money Raised in 2010–2018 U.S. House Elections

“…Campaign donors and party leaders are disproportionately white and male. Furthermore, the demographic makeup of party leaders and donors does not assist women of color throughout the campaign process (Hassell and Visalvanich 2019; Mayersohn 2015). With a donor pool that lacks shared social group membership and has higher average levels of sexism and racial resentment than people of color (Francia et al 2003; Grossman and Hopkins 2016; Tesler 2012; Wilson and Davis 2018), women of color candidates are forced to prove themselves as viable candidates to donors to an extent that other candidates do not.…”

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

“…We seek to better understand how parties shape the representation of minorities and women through their support of minority and women candidates in the general election. The latest research has focused on party recruitment of minorities and women (Niven 2006;Shah, Scott and Juenke 2019) and party support of minorities and women in the primary election (Hassell and Visalvanich 2019;Ocampo 2018), but we are aware of no recent work examining how race and gender might influence the decision of parties to extend more or less support to candidates in the general election. Sincere or not, by the general election stage, party efforts to aid underrepresented candidates are met with the electoral priority of parties: winning office.…”

“…As a result, women are less likely to challenge co-partisans in the primary (Dittmar et al, 2017), and racial/ethnic minority candidates are less likely to enter primaries when co-ethnic support is insufficient to carry them to victory (Branton 2009). The newest research in this area examines instances where minorities and women do enter primaries, and finds co-partisan party elite support to be both available (Crowder-Meyer and Cooperman 2018;Hassell and Visalvanich 2019, but see Ocampo and Ray 2019) and important (Hassell and Visalvanich 2019;Ocampo 2018) to the electoral success of minority and women candidates.…”