Although it may be rare to grow up in families as political as those of Beau Biden, Lisa Murkowski, or Kay Hagan, family dynamics play a substantial role in politics. We need to look no further than the typical campaign ad, website, or political acceptance or resignation speech for examples of politicians invoking the influence and importance of their families in their political decision making. Yet even though politicians rely on their families – in terms of the civic duty they attribute to their parents for instilling in them, and the support for which they regularly thank their spouses and children – we know little about whether and to what extent family dynamics systematically affect candidate emergence. After all, most of what we know about the role of family dynamics in politics yields from studies of candidates and elected officials, all of whom managed to enter the electoral arena, regardless of their family circumstances, structures, roles, and responsibilities.