2016/08/17 by Steven Rogers · 127 citations
Business, Management and Accounting · Economics, Econometrics and Finance · Social Sciences · #Economics #Electoral Systems and Political Participation #Elite #Fiscal Policies and Political Economy #Law #Legislature #Political Influence and Corporate Strategies #Political economy #Political science #Politics #Power (physics) #Presidential system #Public administration #State (computer science) #State legislature #Voting
paper · doi:10.1177/0002716216662454
published in The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 667(1), 207-225 (SAGE Publishing)
openalex publication_date 2016/08/17 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/30
The race for the White House is at the top of the ticket, but voters will also choose more than 5,000 state legislators in November 2016. While voters elect and hold the president responsible for one job and state legislators for another, the outcomes of their elections are remarkably related. In analyses of elite and voter behavior in state legislative elections, I show that legislators affiliated with the president’s party—especially during unpopular presidencies—are the most likely to be challenged, and compared with individual assessments of the state legislature, changes in presidential approval have at least three times the impact on voters’ decision-making in state legislative elections. Thus, while state legislatures wield considerable policymaking power, legislators’ electoral fates appear to be largely out of their control.