Much existing research on coattail effects focuses on the president’s ability to attract votes for congressional candidates of the same party. In addition to candidates’ parties being noted on the ballot, however, voters can often infer candidate gender, meaning it could also influence voter perceptions of candidates. In this article, we examine whether coattail effects exist not just at the party-level, but also with respect to gender. Using electoral data from gubernatorial and state legislative races from 2010 and 2014, we examine the degree to which women candidates for governor attract votes for female candidates for state legislative races down-ballot. We find that women state legislative candidates can benefit from having a woman at the top of the ticket, but the context and frequency of this benefit differs by party.

Niebler, Sarah, Kathleen Marchetti, and Thomas Kozdron. Gubernatorial Elections and Coattail Effects of Women Candidates. Journal of Women, Politics and Policy 41, no. 3 (2020): 334-350. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1554477X.2020.1805268

Sarah Niebler and Kathleen Marchetti are professors of Political Science at Dickinson College.

For more information on the published version, visit Taylor and Francis's Website. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1554477X.2020.1805268

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