... In her election 'experiment,' [Vesla] Weaver created fictional candidates for a senatorial campaign. Two of them were white, one was a light-skinned black candidate and one a dark-skinned candidate. She found that 'skin color had as much an effect as race on the candidates.' Republican voters tended to shy away from the black candidate even when they perceived that candidate to be the more conservative. According to Weaver, what can be generalized from the findings is that racial stereotypes still matter for black candidates.