{"id":19986,"date":"2014-09-03T07:00:47","date_gmt":"2014-09-03T12:00:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/short-reads\/%year%\/%monthnum%\/%day%\/who-runs-for-office-a-profile-of-the-2\/"},"modified":"2024-04-14T03:45:32","modified_gmt":"2024-04-14T08:45:32","slug":"who-runs-for-office-a-profile-of-the-2","status":"publish","type":"short-read","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/short-reads\/2014\/09\/03\/who-runs-for-office-a-profile-of-the-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Who runs for office? A profile of the 2%"},"content":{"rendered":"

There are 90,107 government units in the U.S. \u2014 everything from\u00a0county governments (3,031) to independent school district governments (12,880), according to 2012 Census Bureau data<\/a>. Some governments have appointed officials, but hundreds of thousands of Americans serve in elected office, mostly at the local level.<\/p>\n\n

For the first time, Pew Research asked a question about who seeks out these offices and found that about 2% of Americans say they have ever run for federal, local, or state elected office. With the data from this year\u2019s polarization survey and political typology<\/a>, we can provide a snapshot of who has ever<\/em> placed their name on a ballot, although we don\u2019t know how recently they did so.<\/p>\n\n

\"whites,<\/a><\/figure>\n\n

Our data show that those who say they have sought office tend to be white, male and well-educated. In fact, while women account for half of the adult population, they are just a quarter of those who say they have run for office. This is in keeping with other research<\/a> that has documented the imbalance. Women who serve in office continue to be underrepresented at all levels of government<\/a> \u2014 20% of U.S. senators are women, as are 18% of House members; at the state level, only 10% of governors and 24% of state legislators are women.<\/p>\n\n

There is a similar imbalance when it comes to race and ethnicity, with whites disproportionately more likely to have sought office and blacks and Hispanics less likely to have done so. While non-Hispanic whites make up 66% of American adults, according to the U.S. Census Bureau\u2019s 2012 American Community Survey<\/a>, 82% of those who say they have ever run for office are white.<\/p>\n\n

By contrast, non-Hispanic blacks make up 12% of the adult population but only 5% of office-seekers. Similarly, 15% of U.S. adults are Hispanic while only 6% of the adults who have ever run for office are Hispanic.<\/p>\n\n

Moreover, 16% of those who say they have run for office have post-graduate degrees; only 10% of the total adult population has attained that level of education.<\/p>\n\n

In addition to having run for office, this group also participates more in other political activities. For example, while 15% of all U.S. adults say they have made a donation in the last two years to a political campaign or group that supports a candidate for office, 35% of office-seekers have donated money in that time.<\/p>\n\n

One caveat is that our question asks about a lifetime history of running for office and does not provide a snapshot of who currently is running for office. Thus, 43% of adults who have ever<\/em> run for office are ages 65 and older, while the age profile of candidates today might be different.<\/p>\n\n

Methodological note: <\/em>The survey question was asked of 3,341 adults<\/em><\/a>, Jan. 23-Feb. 9, 2014, with a margin of error of 2.0 percentage points. A total of 112 people, or 2% of the weighted sample, said they have ever run for office.<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Our data show that those who say they have sought office tend to be white, male and well-educated. In fact, while women account for half of the adult population, they are just a quarter of those who say they have run for office.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":64,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"sub_headline":null,"sub_title":"","_prc_public_revisions":[],"_ppp_expiration_hours":0,"_ppp_enabled":false,"ai_generated_summary":"","apple_news_api_created_at":"","apple_news_api_id":"","apple_news_api_modified_at":"","apple_news_api_revision":"","apple_news_api_share_url":"","apple_news_cover_media_provider":"image","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_cover_video_id":0,"apple_news_cover_video_url":"","apple_news_cover_embedwebvideo_url":"","apple_news_is_hidden":false,"apple_news_is_paid":"","apple_news_is_preview":false,"apple_news_is_sponsored":"","apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"apple_news_api_pending":"1713064239","relatedPosts":[],"datacite_doi":"","datacite_doi_citation":"","_prc_seo_qr_attachment_id":0,"spoken_article_player_enabled":true,"displayBylines":true,"footnotes":"","prc_watchers":[],"_prc_fork_parent":0,"_prc_fork_status":"","_prc_active_fork":0},"categories":[],"bylines":[754],"collection":[],"datasets":[],"_post_visibility":[],"formats":[467],"_fund_pool":[],"languages":[],"regions-countries":[515],"research-teams":[520],"workflow-status":[],"class_list":["post-19986","short-read","type-short-read","status-publish","hentry","bylines-seth-motel","formats-short-read","regions-countries-united-states","research-teams-politics"],"label":"Short Read","post_parent":0,"word_count":467,"canonical_url":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/short-reads\/2014\/09\/03\/who-runs-for-office-a-profile-of-the-2\/","art_direction":false,"_embeds":[],"watchers":[],"table_of_contents":[],"datacite_doi":"","prc_seo_data":{"title":"Who runs for office? 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