Hey, Governors, Leave Them Kids Alone: Political Influence During Childhood

Gianmarco Daniele, Sergio Galletta, Marco Le Moglie and Federico Masera

No 21907, CEPR Discussion Papers from Centre for Economic Policy Research

Abstract: We study the role of officeholders in the formation of political preferences during childhood. Leveraging data on 200 million registered voters and a regression discontinuity design based on U.S. gubernatorial elections, we show that state governors systematically shift voters’ partisan alignment toward their own party. The effects are concentrated among individuals who were between the ages of 6 and 17 during a governor’s tenure. Each additional year of exposure to a Republican governor during childhood increases the probability of Republican registration in adulthood by 0.45 percentage point. We also document lasting impacts on primary participation and survey-based attitudes. The effects are systematically stronger in settings where governors enjoy greater institutional authority, especially over education and budgeting, and when they are more popular.

Keywords: governors; Political attitudes (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D72 D83 D91 I21 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026-09
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