Heterogeneous Friends-and-Neighbors Voting∗

Previous work shows that candidates receive more personal votes, frequently called “friends-and-neighbors” votes, in areas where they have local attachments. This article examines heterogeneity in friends-and-neighbors voting near candidates’ counties of birth and residence in U.S. statewide executive office elections. Using two large datasets, I estimate how the magnitude of the friends-and-neighbors vote varies across candidate types, electoral environments, offices, and voters. Candidates’ vote shares increase by substantially more in their counties of birth and residence than in neighboring counties. Candidates vote shares increase by more in home counties that are less populated and generally less supportive of their party. The salience of the office does not relate to the amount of friends-and-neighbors voting. Although incumbents and non-incumbents receive similar amounts of friends-and-neighbors votes, challengers who currently hold local or state-legislative office receive more friends-and-neighbors support. Finally, I show that friends-and-neighbors voting decreased across time. ∗I thank Luke Reilly and Aakash Abbi for providing excellent research assistance and Dan Hopkins for comments and suggestions.