Why success for women candidates in the 2018 midterms might turn more male voters away from the Democratic Party

The lead-up to the 2018 midterm elections has seen a record number of women win primaries for the Democratic Party. Not only is the party fielding more women candidates than ever before, women are more likely to vote for Democrats than men. In new research Heather L. Ondercin investigates this gender gap in partisanship, finding that it began to develop in the 1960s, rather than in the 1980s as many had previously thought. What has characterized this gender gap, she writes, is that as the gender imbalance between who both parties elect has grown, so has the their support from men and women, with women increasingly favoring Democrats and men, Republicans.