Beyond bipartisan support: analyzing the TikTok ban votes in the U.S. house of representatives

The U.S. House of Representatives made a significant move by passing legislation on the TikTok ban ‘twice’ in less than 40 days. The passed legislation requires that ByteDance—its China-based parent company—divest from TikTok within 270 days. Despite overwhelming bipartisan support, this research aims to provide evidence that there is significant variation in legislator voting behavior attributable to partisanship, ideology, and demographic factors. This study employs logistic regression to analyze the voting decisions of 417 legislators in the first vote and 418 in the second. The results showed that partisanship had a strong effect on the first vote, with Republicans in red states more likely to support the ban. However, the second vote saw a decline in party influence, with white legislators from both parties emerging as key proponents of the ban. Across both votes, the strongest predictor was ideology, with ideological extremists on either the conservative or liberal side more likely to vote against the ban. Younger but longer-tenured legislators as well as non-lawyers also showed a higher likelihood of opposing the ban. This study contributes to the discourse on congressional voting in the context of evolving geopolitical and technological landscapes between the U.S. and China.