Why do voters elect less qualified candidates?

Voters sometimes vote for seemingly less-qualified candidates. To explain this fact, we develop a political agency model with sequential elections in which voter elects politician among candidates different competence (valence) levels, considering that politicians’ representation of voters’ preferences depends on their levels. We show negative relationship exists between and when future challenger is likely to be incompetent the reward politicians small. also highlight private information how they evaluate candidates’ competence, demonstrating demand can self-fulfilling prophecy.