Do religious voters discriminate against women gubernatorial candidates
ABSTRACTScholars report that areas with higher concentrations of religious voters elect relatively few women to executive office. These studies, however, cannot explain whether the observed patterns are a direct result of religious individuals’ vote choices. Our study explores this question using Cooperative Congressional Election Studies data from all mixed-gender gubernatorial elections in the 2008 through 2016 general election cycles. We conclude that religious voters, regardless of religious tradition or gender, are not significant barriers to electing women to state executive office. More specifically, religious individuals are disproportionately supportive of Republican women and opposed to Democratic women, even when controlling for the ideological distance between the individual’s partisanship and that of the candidate.
This paper outlines past and current demographics of the state and local government workforce, contrasted against the demographics of the private sector, and explores the projected public sector workforce needs of the future as the Baby Boom generation begins to retire. This paper also briefly details issues that state and local government executives describe as major challenges their governments are facing as they look to recruit and retain the next wave of public servants.