Incumbent-Challenger and Open-seat Elections in a Spatial Model of Political Competition

In Groseclose (Am J Political Sci 45:862–886, 2001), candidates with asymmetric valence scores and varying degrees of policy motivation simultaneously choose divergent policies. I take a version of the Groseclose model with policy-motivated candidates and extend it to allow for sequential policy announcements. This may be a suitable approach for incumbent-challenger elections because the incumbent’s policy is typically known before the challenger’s. I show that policy divergence is greater when candidates announce policies sequentially as opposed to simultaneously. I also show that policy-motivated incumbents benefit from first-mover advantage.