… Discussions of electability are often really about identity — and they tend to come down negatively on nonwhite and non-male candidates.
Others have done empirical work on what qualities (such as gender, ideology and race) make a person more or less likely to win an election, and I will discuss that research in a subsequent edition of Secret Identity. But let’s put that data aside for a moment and just talk about the implications of some of the conventional wisdom on electability. CONT.
Perry Bacon Jr., FiveThirtyEight