What Voters Expect and Want from Representatives

This chapter offers the first look at how constituents understand and evaluate their elected representative. Building on the previous chapter's historical discussion, I utilize time-series data from the America National Election Studies (ANES) to examine what voters “like” or “dislike” about their House representative, and how these trends have changed over time. Since the 1970s, the percent of respondents who identify local distributive goods as a reason for liking their member of Congress has remained fairly flat. Justifications based on specific policies, by contrast, have risen steadily. Digging deeper, these data suggest that reliable voters, activists, and donors are most likely to provide policy justifications. Responses that identify local spending, by contrast, are not correlated with these measures of electoral intensity. If local distributive records or national policy strategies appeal to different electorates, then the latter may produce greater returns among those groups most vital to reelection. To evaluate these claims further, I deployed a series of experiments to test the conditions under which voters are receptive to representatives who focus on broad policy achievements. I find that constituents prefer policy-based records over more local distributive appeals. Moreover, partisan voters are particularly moved by issue areas and policy positions that are consistent with their team's brand. Hence, even as broad national policy records are rewarded, partisan issues motivate stronger reactions among a member's most central supporters.