Candidate Sex and Delegate Voting in a Pre-Primary Party Endorsement Election

The central concern of this research is to assess the impact of candidate sex on voting decisions. Some evidence on the question indicates that males are more often advantaged than females in elections with contestants of each sex. Much of the literature on which this conclusion is based is methodologically inappropriate to warrant inferences about the independent effect of candidate sex. The present study draws on data from a sample of 138 Minneapolis Democratic part delegates who responded to a mail survey about their recent participation in a ward-level caucus to endorse a candidate for City Council. The case is significant because the two main candidates-one female, one male-took qualified for office in other respects. Analysis of delegates' endorsement criteria thus offers an unusual opportunity to gauge the importance of candidate sex on vote choice. In contrast to the typical direction of electoral advantage, a substantial bias in favor of the female candidate was found to exist in this case.