The Effects of Candidate Gender on Campaign Spending in State Legislative Elections*

In: Social science quarterly, Band 88, Heft 5, S. 1092-1105

Abstract

Objective. This article will investigate whether candidate gender affects levels of campaign spending in state legislative elections.Methods. The analysis compares men and women candidates running for the state legislature in 20 states over two election cycles. By controlling for a range of contextual factors, the analysis isolates the independent influence of candidate gender.Results. The findings demonstrate that women and men spend similar levels of campaign funding in running for the state legislature. Running as incumbents, challengers, or open‐seat candidates, women are not at a financial disadvantage relative to similarly situated men candidates in the general election.Conclusions. Although women may suffer difficulties at other parts of the electoral process, women are not at a disadvantage relative to men in how much money their campaigns ultimately allocate for the purposes of gaining voter support.