The 2018 midterm elections proved to be a banner year for female candidates. The record-setting number of women on the ballot translated into a new high-water mark for the descriptive representation of women in Congress. While it is clear that female candidates were more successful in getting on the ballot during this election cycle than ever before, what remains unclear is how voters perceived the diverse traits these candidates brought to their campaigns and how those traits impacted voter evaluations. In this dissertation, I build on the existing literature on gender stereotypes and white female candidates to explore this question.