Minority Candidates and the Electability Curse: Exploring Causes and Remedies through the Lens of LGBTQ+ Candidates
Discussions around electability are central in election campaigns, often targeting minority candidates. This paper examines two related questions: Why do electability concerns strongly affect minority candidates? How can we contrast such concerns? Focusing on voters’ perspective, I argue that three main factors fuel electability concerns, including perceptions of lack of electoral support for minority candidates, voters’ own prejudice, and the scarcity of successful examples of minority candidates. I also explain that providing voters with information on actual public support for minority rights and candidates reduces electability concerns. I test my expectations on minority candidates by focusing on LGBTQ+ candidates. I rely on three original datasets: the largest survey to date of LGBTQ+ candidates, which includes about 500 candidates; and two voter surveys, each conducted with about 2,000 U.S. respondents, where I embedded conjoint and priming experiments. Reducing electability concerns is important to avoid that they become self-fulfilling prophecies.
Date:
20 May 2025, 12:30
Venue:
Nuffield College, New Road OX1 1NF
Venue Details:
SCR (A staircase)
Speaker:
Gabriele Magni, (Loyola Marymount University)
Organising department:
Nuffield College
Organisers:
Rachel Bernhard (Nuffield College),
Tarik Abou-Chadi (Nuffield College)
Organiser contact email address:
maxine.collett@nuffield.ox.ac.uk
Part of:
Nuffield College Political Science Seminars
Booking required?:
Not required
Audience:
Members of the University only
Editor:
Maxine Collett
