Fallin from Oklahoma was elected to the state legislature (1990-1994) and the U.S. House of Representatives (2007-2011) in addition to serving as lieutenant governor of her state from 1995 to 2007 (CAWP 2015). None of these women were political newcomers; this supports the findings that gubernatorial candidates usually have elected office experience in either the legislative or executive branches (Beyle 1999; Windett 2011). This paper examines the effect that previous political experience can have on the success of female gubernatorial candidates. In other words, are women more likely to be successful in getting elected as governor if they have held an elected political office previously? Furthermore, we question if certain levels of political office experience are more advantageous for female candidates. For example, are female candidates who have lower level statewide office experience such as Lieutenant Governor or Attorney General more successful in their quest for the governor’s office than female candidates with other types of experience? Finally, we further examine any differences in paths to success by political party. Past research suggests that for female gubernatorial candidates, the path to success reflects a different candidate pool for Democrats than for Republicans (Stambough and O’Regan 2007). In this study, we begin with a discussion of past research on the factors that explain the success and failure of female candidates before focusing more specifically on gubernatorial elections. We then examine all of the female vs. male gubernatorial elections from 1976-2014 to identify if a certain career path is associated with the success of female gubernatorial candidates measured by the percentage of the vote received by the female candidates. We conclude with suggestions for future areas of research in this field. Literature Review Over the years, research has addressed the factors that affect the electability of female candidates. One reason that is used to explain the lack of women in elected office is the incumbency advantage. The benefit of incumbency is the name recognition and resources that are vital for a successful campaign (Jacobson 2004). Because, over the years, most of the incumbents have been men, they are the candidates who have benefited from the advantage (Carroll 1994; Darcy et. al. 1994; Witt et. al. 1995). As more women get elected and run for the advantage of incumbency will benefit the women. The anticipated solution to this election,
Female Candidate with Statewide Elective Office Experience 5.13 2.27** Male Candidate with Statewide Elective Office 1.57 0.64** Open-seat Elections 4.02 2.60 Citizen Ideology 0.33 0.94 Democratic Women in State Legislature -0.07 0.14 South 2.11 2.75 Constant 35.41 6.63*** ** p<0.05; *** p<0.01; n=53; Prob > F 0.00; R-square 0.31 Table 3: Vote for Republican female gubernatorial candidates running as challengers or in open-seat elections, 1976-2014. Variable Coefficient Robust Standard Error Female Candidate with Lower Statewide Elective Office Experience -3.69 4.04 Male Candidate with Lower Statewide Elective Office 1.05 1.75 Open-seat Elections 0.27 3.85 Citizen Ideology 0.01 0.14 Republican Women in State Legislature -0.12 0.23 South 14.39 6.75* Constant 42.90 10.09*** p<0.1; ** p<0.05; *** p<0.01; n=26; Prob > F 0.02; R-square 0.31
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