Outcome-Consequential Campaigning

In this Center for Effective Lawmaking (CEL) working paper, Co-Directors Craig Volden (University of Virginia) and Alan Wiseman (Vanderbilt University) and Ph.D. Candidate Mackenzie Dobson (University of Virginia) examine whether congressional campaigns offer insights into likely policy outcomes championed by the candidates, including those resulting from collective policymaking. To address this inquiry, the co-authors utilized new scholarship to highlight the enhanced lawmaking effectiveness of bipartisan legislators. They found that, since the year 2000, more than a third of congressional freshmen used bipartisan language on the campaign trail. These bipartisan campaigners ended up evolving into effective lawmakers, whose enhanced effectiveness was highlighted in their earlier terms in office and linked to the lawmaking stages that required significant coalition-building activities. These results demonstrate that not only can campaigns offer voters valuable insight into a candidate’s future actions in office – including the issues they prioritize and how they vote in the legislature – but also the policy outcomes they can achieve through effective lawmaking.

To learn more, read the full report here.

Photo: “Voting” by justgrimes is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.