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Emerging Party Cleavages in the House of Representatives, 1962-1996

Maxwell School, Syracuse University

NICOLE R. LINDSTROM

Maxwell School, Syracuse University

Income has the potential to divide people politically. Most attempts to assess the impact of income focus on individual-level analyses. Representatives, however, are elected in districts, which have varying compositions of constituents. To assess the connection between income and party in congressional elections, we need to focus on income composition of districts and how partisan outcomes are related to these variations. This analysis assesses that relationship and how it has changed in recent decades. The focus is on U.S. House districts from 1962 to 1996. The relationship of district income and party outcomes is then examined by region. Since 1962, income has emerged as a significant source of political divisions in the South and North, whereas the remainder of the country has not developed a relationship. Finally, we analyze the 1994 and 1996 Congressional elections, and find that the relationship of income to party continues to be significant, but the 1994 election attenuated the relationship.

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