FIND DATA: By Author | Journal | Sites   ANALYZE DATA: Help with R | SPSS | Stata | Excel   WHAT'S NEW? US Politics | Int'l Relations | Law & Courts
   FIND DATA: By Author | Journal | Sites   WHAT'S NEW? US Politics | IR | Law & Courts
If this link is broken, please report as broken. You can also submit updates (will be reviewed).
#NeverTrump Explained: Identity, Not Policy, Drives Congressional Defection
Insights from the Field
Identity politics
descriptive representation
gender gap
establishment bias
American Politics
R&P
1 Stata files
1 datasets
Dataverse
#NeverTrump: Why Republican Members of Congress Refused to Support Their Party's Nominee in the 2016 Presidential Election was authored by Jordan Ragusa, Lauren R. Johnson and Deon McCray. It was published by Sage in R&P in 2018.

The refusal of Republican members of Congress to back their party's 2016 nominee became a defining story. This paper examines the reasons behind this movement by analyzing diverse explanations from media and categorizing them into four theoretical frameworks—policy preferences, identity politics, electoral calculations, and establishment interests. We then test these claims using empirical evidence.

Our findings suggest that members' religious backgrounds and gender identity were more influential than previously thought. These factors align with identity-centric perspectives often overlooked in political discourse.

We also reveal a counterintuitive pattern: career politicians from established institutions showed greater likelihood of supporting Trump, challenging assumptions about party loyalty. This discovery underscores the limited explanatory power of conventional wisdom regarding congressional behavior.

data
Find on Google Scholar
Find on JSTOR
Find on Sage Journals
Rsearch & Politics
Podcast host Ryan