Expanding Constituency Support Through Shared Local Roots in U.S. House Primaries

• Published date: 01 March 2021
• Date: 01 March 2021
• Author: Charles Hunt
• DOI: 10.1177/1532673X20959606
• Subject Matter: Articles

https://doi.org/10.1177/1532673X20959606

American Politics Research

2021, Vol. 49(2) 233 –244

© The Author(s) 2020

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DOI: 10.1177/1532673X20959606

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Article

Recent academic studies as well as popular media accounts

of congressional elections have focused largely on how

closely the reelection chances of a member of Congress

(MC) are tied to the fortunes of their party at both the district

and national levels. There is little doubt that partisanship of

both MC and voter plays a crucial role in shaping congres-

sional elections and representation (Jacobson, 2015).

However, there remains significant variation in MCs’ rela-

tionships with their constituents that cannot be explained

solely by partisanship. This variation has extensive impacts

on electoral outcomes, particularly in primary elections,

when party labels are unavailable as a cue to co-partisan vot-

ers. This paper leverages the primary election condition to

identify the power of an attribute of incumbent MCs other

than partisanship: the extent of their local biographical roots

in their district.

Previous scholarship tells us that voters put a premium on

incumbent-specific attributes such as race, religion, geogra-

phy, and gender when deciding whether to reelect their repre-

sentative (Childs & Cowley, 2011; Fenno, 2003; Gay, 2001;

Green & Guth, 1991; Plutzer & Zipp, 1996). Nonpartisan and

nonideological connections establish stronger relationships

between constituents and MCs, and thereby increase an MC’s

chances of renomination and reelection. An MC’s local, place-

based roots in the district is one such important but understud-

ied connection between MCs and constituents. These roots

provide both practical and symbolic representational benefits

that help MCs connect with their constituents through place-

based identity, values, and experiences unique to the district,

as well as offering social, political, and financial benefits

that improve MCs’ electoral standing. Even in an era of

nationalized political upheaval characterized by partisan and

ideological polarization, local roots capture a shared sense of

place-based identity that positively conditions how MCs relate

to their constituents, and as a result improves their electoral

performance.

There is variation in the extent to which MCs possess this

powerful shared local identity with their constituents. I capture

these local roots using an original seven-point scale of verified

biographical information that pinpoints MCs’ authentic, lived

experience within the geographic boundaries of their districts

at different points in their pre-Congress lives. I use these

indicators for incumbent House members from 2002 to 2018

to address the multiple ways in which shared local roots

strengthen their foundational relationship with their constitu-

ents—and by extension, their reelection chances—at the first

crucial stage of the reelection process: the party primary.

959606APRXXX10.1177/1532673X20959606American Politics ResearchHunt

research-article2020

1Boise State University, Boise, ID, USA

Corresponding Author:

Charles Hunt, Boise State University, 1910 W University Dr, Boise, ID

83725-0001, USA.

Email: charleshunt@boisestate.edu

Expanding Constituency Support

Through Shared Local Roots in

U.S. House Primaries

Charles Hunt1

Abstract

This paper addresses the enduring connection of localism and place-based roots shared between many elected leaders and

their constituents, which previous work has either ignored or improperly specified. I argue that representatives of the U.S.

House with these roots—meaning authentic, lived experience in their districts prior to their officeholding—sustain more

supportive constituencies in primary election stage. Using an original 7-point index of local biographical characteristics of

incumbents seeking renomination from 2002 to 2018, I find that deeply-rooted incumbents are less than half as likely to receive

a primary challenge, and on average perform more than 5 percentage points better in their primary elections when they are

challenged. These gains take place even after taking district partisanship, national political conditions, incumbent ideology, and

other primary factors into account, and should induce scholars to reconsider the importance of local representation even

amidst a nationalizing political culture.

Keywords

congress, congressional elections, primary elections, political geography, congressional candidates, representation