Partisanship and the dynamics of “candidate centered politics” in American presidential nominations

This paper explores whether Democratic voters emphasize different traits when evaluating potential party nominees than do Republican voters. Using data obtained from the only two electoral cycles in the modern era in which competitive races took place for both the Republican and Democratic nominations (1988 and 2000), we present evidence that Democratic primary voters tend to place the greatest weight on perceived candidate compassion, whereas Republicans are more likely to rely on perceived personal virtue.