Is there a Gender Affinity Effect in American politics? Information, affect, and candidate sex in US house elections

A common assumption people make about American elections is that women voters will be the most likely source of support for female candidates, a phenomenon referred to as the gender affinity effect. Using National Election Study (NES) data from 1990 to 2000, this project expands our understanding of forms that this affinity effect can take by examining two underutilized measures of reactions to candidates: information and candidate affect scores. The author also considers the impact of political party on women's and men's attitudes toward female candidates and examines whether any gender affinity effect in reactions to female candidates is related to people's voting decisions.