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Candidate Sexual Orientation Didn't Matter (in the Way You Might Think) in the 2015 UK General Election

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 March 2018

GABRIELE MAGNI  and
ANDREW REYNOLDS
GABRIELE MAGNI*
Affiliation:
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
ANDREW REYNOLDS*
Affiliation:
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
*
Gabriele Magni is a Ph.D. Candidate in the Department of Political Science, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 361 Hamilton Hall, UNC Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3265(magni@live.unc.edu).
Andrew Reynolds is a Professor of Political Science, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 361 Hamilton Hall, UNC Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3265 (asreynol@email.unc.edu).
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Abstract

Does sexual orientation and gender identity matter at election time? While previous literature has explored the effect of candidate gender and ethnicity on electoral results, this is the first study to quantitatively investigate the impact of sexual orientation. We build an original dataset combining individual-level data on more than 3,000 candidates in the 2015 UK election with sociodemographic indicators at the constituency level. In addition to sexual orientation and other demographic characteristics, we include candidate education, political experience, and campaign spending. We find that LGBT candidates generally do not have a negative impact on party vote share. Even in more conservative environments, LGBT candidates perform at least as well as their straight counterparts. This work is important to understand the consequences of descriptive representation and, relatedly, how rapid social change happens.

Type
Letter
Information
American Political Science Review , Volume 112 , Issue 3 , August 2018 , pp. 713 - 720
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 2018 

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Footnotes

The authors acknowledge the help and advice of Marco Biagi, Crispin Blunt, Sarah Brown, Andrew Flores, Matthew Green, Benali Hamdache, James Harper, Kieran Healy, Tim Hopkins, Zoe O'Connell, Ed Gareth Poole, Harry Prance, Ken Sherrill, Alissandra Stoyan, and Luke Young. The authors would also like to thank the anonymous reviewers and the APSR editor for their helpful comments. Replication files can be found on the American Political Science Review Dataverse: https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/CTZNJV.

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