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Partisan Affiliation and the Evaluation of Non-Prototypical Candidates

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 May 2018

Alexander W. Severson
Alexander W. Severson*
Affiliation:
Department of Political Science, Florida State University, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL, USA, e-mail: aws12@my.fsu.edu, awseverson@gmail.com, Twitter: @awseverson
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Abstract

Ideologically impure candidates—RINOs and DINOs—risk losing the endorsement of their fellow copartisans. However, which copartisans? In this article, I assess how party affiliation and the strength of partisan affiliation condition the evaluation of ideologically impure, non-prototypical candidates. Using a nationally representative survey experiment, I present evidence that while partisans negatively evaluate non-prototypical copartisans, there is not a consistent relationship between strength of identification and the degree of punitiveness. Moreover, candidate non-prototypicality causes convergence in candidate support between Republicans and Democrats. My results provide evidence that nominal partisan affiliation is by itself insufficient to save an ideologically non-prototypical candidate from the rebuke of fellow copartisans and thus that the “in-name-only” charge holds some weight.

Keywords

Partisanshipprototypicalitycandidate evaluationsurvey experiment
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Experimental Political Science , Volume 5 , Issue 2 , Summer 2018 , pp. 121 - 147
Copyright
Copyright © The Experimental Research Section of the American Political Science Association 2018 

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Supplementary material: Link

Severson Dataset

Dataset

https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/HO2KIC
Link