Theoretical models suggest voters select congressional candidates based on issue congruence.

💡 Bridging Theory-Data Gap: New analysis resolves long-standing issues by jointly scaling voter preferences and candidate platforms from the 2008 and 2010 elections using shared survey questions.

Our findings confirm that vote choice is strongly tied to spatial proximity between candidates' positions and voters' preferences. Individual-level factors like partisanship, alongside contextual elements such as campaign spending, significantly influence this relationship's strength.

🔍 Why It Matters: This robust evidence enhances understanding of voter decision-making dynamics in US elections and underscores the role of electoral institutions.