The Republican challengers for the state senate and assembly seats in my area have provided the following for the occupations listed under their names on this year’s ballot:
TONY VIRRUETA REP
Veterans Advocate/Father
DALILA EPPERSON REP
Broadcast Journalist/Mom
Their Democratic opponents simply say “State Senator” and "State Assemblymember/Teacher.
Is this a new “thing” for Republican candidates in agreement with some of JD Vance and Sarah Sander’s bizarre theories about the civic superiority of those with kids?
This is not remotely a Republican thing, or new (maybe it’s new in your area). I’ve seen it forever in local races for all parties. Candidates do that if they want to project family-friendly vibes. Sometimes they’ll put “Stay at home mom” or the like if they don’t have another job.
I don’t think it’s especially new, I’ve certainly seen it before, but mostly (if memory serves) for non-partisan local positions like County Supervisor (where I live, that’s the City Council) or partisan but local positions like state representative. But I can see that it would definitely be more popular with Republicans now, as it is one of the (so many!) lines that the Republicans have tried to draw between themselves and everyone else.
Especially being a “Mom” has been used to indicate how much the candidate just naturally cares about children’s issues. It doesn’t matter so much what their views are, just that they care so much.
I’ve certainly seen it in campaign ads – sometimes as effectively the only info about the candidates. But I’ve never seen it on a ballot; NYState ballots have the candidates’ names and their parties, that’s it. Is it common in other states to have occupations and/or family info listed on the ballot itself? And what do they do with candidates for whom the only actual occupation is “politician”?
It is in California. There are fairly strict rules about “designations”:
As Czarcasm mentioned, they don’t allow religion. And you can’t call yourself an “expert” or the like. So if you want to project vibes about yourself, there are limited options. Your official job is one. But you can also say more generic things like “Father” or “Entrepreneur”.
You could probably put “Politician” but I expect you’ll do better with something more specific like “Incumbent” or “Former Attorney General”.
Here in New York State I’ve never seen anything on a ballot other than the candidate’s name and party, confirming what @thorny_locust said. It drops my jaw that this goes on elsewhere.
WA doesn’t list occupations on the ballot - just the candidate’s “preference” of political party. This being a top-two open primary state, candidates are free to state any party preference they want, regardless of whether that party even exists. You’ll occasionally see people list made-up parties like “Jobs and Freedom Party” or “JFK Republican Party”.
For some reason the word “Former” is excluded. The latter example would be “Retired Attorney General” which would seem weird if you are running for AG again.
I meant to say that . I did read the text but apparently internalized the opposite–that “former” was allowed but “retired” was not. Oops.
The law is weirdly specific in various ways. Also, my earlier example of “stay-at-home mom” would not have been allowed, being 4 words instead of 3. I could swear I’ve seen that before–maybe the law has changed slightly, or it slipped under the radar somehow.
“We’re better on the economy!” (even though they’re not). “We’re tough on crime!” (even though they’re not). And, here, “We’re pro family!” (even though etc).
“We’re better at constantly pounding the propaganda drum!” (This one is definitely true.)
Parents:
Cynthia Navarro - Republican - Educator/Parent/Businesswoman
Heath Flora - Republican - Parent/Farmer/Assemblyman
Jeff Gonzalez - Republican - Business Owner/Parent
So 2/7 “Fathers” are Democrats, 4/9 “Mothers”, and 0/3 "Parents, for 6/19 overall. While there is a definite Republican bias for stating parenthood, it’s by no means rare on the Democrat side.
I’m not going to tabulate the gender of each candidate, but I think there are substantially more male candidates than female overall. And yet “mothers” outnumber “fathers” by a bit. Possibly a small bias there as well.
I forgot a category here: “mom” and “dad”:
Dave Min - Democratic - State Senator/Dad
Linda T. Sánchez - Democratic - Mom/Congresswoman
Buffy Wicks - Democratic - Assemblymember/Mom
Dalila Epperson - Republican - Broadcast Journalist/Mom
Lisa Calderon - Democratic - Assembly Member/Mom
Interesting that the cutsier names are 4/5 Democrat, bringing the total to 10/24. That substantially reduces the Republican lead.
I have too. If the candidate wants it, I’m OK with it.
About 20 years ago, it ended up blowing up spectacularly in a down-ballot race in Illinois, when it turned out that yes, the candidate had 4 kids from 2 different marriages, and while that wasn’t the issue, the fact that he abused both wives was. I don’t remember his name, or care what it is.
. I did read the text but apparently internalized the opposite–that “former” was allowed but “retired” was not. Oops.