Who Parties? Participation in Party Message Campaigns

• In Event: Candidacies, Campaigns, and Behavior in the American Context

Abstract

Political parties are engaged in a constant struggle to promote their collective reputations—or “brand”—and harm the opposition. To accomplish these goals, congressional parties often engage in messaging strategies to capture media and public attention, but party members to not participate in theses party-building events equally. This paper examines the variation of individual-level participation in party messaging activities in the U.S. House of Representatives. This process is analyzed using a unique dataset of all one-minute speeches delivered on the floor of the House between 1989-2016. We find legislators from districts with higher levels of aligned partisanship are more likely to participate in party messaging. However, one of the largest influences on individual-level participation is the actual policy content of the party’s message event, especially when the opposition messages on the same issue on the same day. Direct competition over the policy debate induces more individual-level participation among party membership.

Authors

• Gregory Koger, University of Miami

• Tyler Hughes, California State University, Northridge