Voting for myself: Candidate and voter group associations over time

There is little systematic research examining the potential propensity of voters to vote for candidates who are similar to themselves despite early evidence in The American Voter [Campbell, A., Converse, P., Miller, W.E., Stokes, D.E., 1960. The American Voter. John Wiley and Sons, New York.] and in other studies that social and demographic groupings can be determinative in voting. This paper begins to fill that gap by analyzing multiple similarities (group associations) over time. Using the 1958 and 2004 ANES surveys, I examine group similarities between voters and candidates, targeting groups existing research has found to be politically relevant in order to see what effect such similarities have on the vote. The 1958 analysis includes farmers, working class voters, business people, women and Catholics. The 2004 analysis includes all of the same groups, save farmers. In addition to analyzing how these group similarity cues affect voting in each year's congressional elections, I also compare the two years to discover any similarities or differences in the use of group identity cues over time.