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Did Women and Candidates of Color Lead or Ride the Democratic Wave in 2018?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 July 2020

Bernard L. Fraga
Affiliation:
Emory University
Paru Shah
Affiliation:
University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee
Eric Gonzalez Juenke
Affiliation:
Michigan State University

Extract

Headlines touted a “wave” of women and minority candidates running in the 2018 elections, leading some to conclude that 2018 was the new “year of the woman” and perhaps “year of the candidate of color” (Lai et al. 2018). In fact, the number of women and candidates of color contesting US House elections was so high in 2018 that for the first time on record, White men were the minority of Democratic House nominees (Schneider 2018). Surveys taken immediately before the 2018 midterm elections indicated that women of color were the “ideal candidates” for Democrats, suggesting a changing voter demand for a more diverse field of candidates (Easley 2018).

Type
Symposium: State Legislative Elections of 2018
Copyright
© American Political Science Association 2020

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