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\n

Voters are perfectly fine supporting candidates who aren\u2019t white men.<\/p>\n

But they do show small preferences for candidates who are younger and Christian, according to new results from The POLITICO Poll<\/a>. And voters were most likely to penalize transgender candidates in hypothetical matchups, though Democrats were more likely to support them than GOP voters were.<\/p>\n

The results cast a new light on a simmering, yearslong public conversation within both parties about what it means to be electable and whether putting forward candidates of varying backgrounds is too politically risky in a close election environment. It\u2019s a debate that defined the last open Democratic presidential primary in 2020 and is poised to play a role in 2028 too.<\/p>\n

Democrats have largely focused their debates on whether voters would accept a person of color or a woman, particularly after President Donald Trump defeated Hillary Clinton in 2016 and Kamala Harris in 2024 \u2014 while losing to Joe Biden in 2020. But the poll results suggest the characteristics voters care most about are different, shaped by frustrations over aging politicians and both new and old culture wars.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe American people, I believe, think about identity way less than the average political consultant does,\u201d said Mike Nellis, a longtime Democratic digital strategist who advised Harris\u2019 2020 presidential campaign. \u201cObviously there are factors in society that make it harder for women and people of color to get elected, but there are plenty of incredibly talented people out there who are capable of getting over the hump on that.\u201d<\/p>\n

To test whether demographic characteristics make a candidate more or less electable, Blue Light News\u2019s polling partner, Public First, showed thousands of respondents a series of head-to-head matchups. In each case, respondents were given basic information about the candidate\u2019s demographics, such as their race, age and gender; their career, with titles such as doctor, attorney general or CEO; and a single-sentence description of their political alignment, either as a progressive or moderate Democratic, independent, or moderate or MAGA Republican.<\/p>\n

Respondents then picked which candidate they would prefer, and the results overwhelmingly showed voters cared the most about a candidate\u2019s political ideology. But respondents also revealed more subtle patterns in their preferences.<\/p>\n

Voters across both parties were more likely to reject older candidates in favor of younger ones. Republicans in particular favored candidates who were described as Christian or regular churchgoers, even when controlling for the candidates\u2019 politics. GOP respondents picked candidates described as regularly attending a church just under 9% more often than candidates who did not have any faith.<\/p>\n

That means that even though Republican respondents usually picked the GOP candidate in head-to-head matchups, for example, they were more likely to cross over and support an independent or Democratic candidate when that candidate was described as Christian.<\/p>\n

The results on sexual orientation were more complicated: When candidates were described as \u201cgay,\u201d they were picked about 10% less often across all voters. But when the candidate descriptions describe the candidate as a man married to his husband \u2014 without a label for sexual orientation \u2014 respondents did not pick them less often in a statistically significant manner.<\/p>\n

Voters were less likely to pick transgender candidates, with Democratic voters about 5% less likely while GOP voters were 17% less likely, all else held equal.<\/p>\n

The age results were a strong signal that voters want a new generation of candidates after the last presidential cycle was driven by concerns about Biden\u2019s age, fueling a slew of intergenerational primary contests this year and leading major Democratic voices to publicly call for a younger candidate for 2028. Trump is now 80, and Republicans have faced their own conversations about aging politicians, as Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) faced serious health challenges earlier this year.<\/p>\n

Amanda Litman, co-founder of Run For Something, which recruits candidates under the age of 40, said when the group started its work nearly a decade ago, younger people were often seen as \u201crisky bets\u201d electorally.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow I think people are starting to see that that is not true. Voters will judge people one by one,\u201d Litman said. \u201cThey’re also really hungry for change and really hungry for someone who didn’t get us into this mess.\u201d<\/p>\n

The poll found candidates over the age of 70 were nearly 10% less likely to be picked than candidates under the age of 50, with Democrats slightly more likely than Republicans to disfavor a candidate due to age.<\/p>\n

Notably, The Blue Light News Poll didn’t find differences based on a candidate\u2019s race or gender overall, outside of gender identity. That has long been a topic of debate among Democrats thinking about winning the presidency.<\/p>\n

When Harris replaced Biden on the top of Democrats\u2019 ticket in 2024, few questioned that she would choose a white man as her running mate. Since her loss, some Democrats have argued that a white male candidate<\/a> might be the best path forward for the party in 2028.<\/p>\n

Harris also wrote in her memoir about the campaign that she thought picking<\/a> former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg as her running mate would have been \u201ctoo risky\u201d because he is gay, and that he otherwise would have been her ideal partner.<\/p>\n

But Buttigieg, who is contemplating running for president in 2028, recently argued<\/a> that the country is ready for a gay president, saying he wouldn\u2019t have launched a bid in 2020 otherwise.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat’s on people’s minds isn’t about you, your identity as a candidate,\u201d he told NBC News last weekend. \u201cIt’s about them. It\u2019s about their lives.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Voters are perfectly fine supporting candidates who aren\u2019t white men. But they do show small preferences for candidates who are younger and Christian, according to new results from The Blue Light News Poll. And voters were most likely to penalize transgender candidates in hypothetical matchups, though Democrats were more likely to support them than GOP voters were. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27215","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27215","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27215"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27215\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27215"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27215"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27215"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}