{
  "abstract": "Voters in American congressional midterm elections are widely viewed as demographically less representative than those in presidential elections – older, whiter, wealthier, and more educated. Using Current Population Survey data from 1994 through 2024 as well as voter-file data, we test this conventional wisdom and show that it is partly right but too broad. The key difference between midterm and presidential electorates is age: midterms sharply underrepresent young citizens and overrepresent older citizens compared to presidential elections, while differences between the elections by race, income, and education are much smaller. Midterm voters are, above all, older voters.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [
    "Department of Political Science, University of North Texas, Denton, Texas, United States of America",
    "Department of Government, American University, Washington, District of Columbia, United States of America",
    "Wilf Family Department of Politics, New York University, New York, New York, United States of America"
  ],
  "article_type": "Research Article",
  "arxiv": null,
  "author_total": 3,
  "authors": [
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "Brian T. Hamel"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        1
      ],
      "name": "Jan E. Leighley"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        2
      ],
      "name": "Jonathan Nagler"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/18cpstdx8j13r.bib",
  "cited_by": 0,
  "doi": "10.1371/journal.pone.0360051",
  "fulltext_url": null,
  "id": "18cpstdx8j13r",
  "issns": [
    "1932-6203"
  ],
  "landing_url": "https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0360051",
  "language": null,
  "licence": "CC-BY-4.0",
  "licence_label": "CC BY 4.0",
  "licence_source": "journal",
  "licence_url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
  "metadata_licence": null,
  "native_subjects": [
    [
      "openalex",
      "3320|Electoral Systems and Political Participation"
    ],
    [
      "plos",
      "/Biology and life sciences/Population biology/Population metrics/Age distribution"
    ],
    [
      "plos",
      "/Medicine and health sciences/Women's health/Obstetrics and gynecology/Termination of pregnancy"
    ],
    [
      "plos",
      "/People and places/Population groupings/Age groups"
    ],
    [
      "plos",
      "/People and places/Population groupings/Age groups/Adults"
    ],
    [
      "plos",
      "/Social sciences/Political science/Elections"
    ],
    [
      "plos",
      "/Social sciences/Political science/Governments"
    ],
    [
      "plos",
      "/Social sciences/Political science/Governments/Political parties"
    ],
    [
      "plos",
      "/Social sciences/Sociology/Education/Schools"
    ]
  ],
  "openalex": "W7221756285",
  "pdf_url": "https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0360051&type=printable",
  "pmcid": null,
  "pmid": null,
  "published": "2026-10-14",
  "publisher": "Public Library of Science",
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/18cpstdx8j13r.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-10-30T12:17:23Z",
      "native_id": "10.1371/journal.pone.0360051",
      "source": "plos",
      "url": "https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0360051"
    }
  ],
  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "medicine",
      "origin": "plos:obstetrics and gynecology",
      "subfield": "reproductive-child"
    }
  ],
  "title": "Who votes when? Midterm and presidential voters differ primarily by age",
  "title_text": "Who votes when? Midterm and presidential voters differ primarily by age",
  "type": "peer-reviewed",
  "updated_at": "2026-10-30T12:17:23Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/18cpstdx8j13r",
  "venue": "PLOS One",
  "versions": []
}