Predicting Intraparty Faction Membership Decisions in the U.S. House

• In Event: Implications of Partisanship in the U.S. Congress

Abstract

The documented impacts of intraparty factions in Congress continues to grow from impacting donations members receive to the issues on the policy agenda. Despite these recent findings, much less is known about why members choose to join, or even leave, a given faction. The assumption is that their ideology should predict their membership decisions, but to what extent does that explain membership? Are certain types of legislators drawn to certain factions? How much does support from a faction in one’s election matter? Utilizing an original data set of faction membership between the 107th and 115th congresses, this paper explores the dynamics of members of Congress selecting into these unique sub-institutions within the legislative parties of the House of Representatives.

Author

• Zachary McGee, University of Texas, Austin