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Religion and Perceptions of Candidates' Ideologies in United States House Elections

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 February 2013

Matthew L. Jacobsmeier
Matthew L. Jacobsmeier*
Affiliation:
West Virginia University
*
Address correspondence and reprint requests to: Matthew L. Jacobsmeier, Department of Political Science, University of New Orleans, 228 Milneburg Hall, 2000 Lakeshore Drive, New Orleans, LA 70148. E-mail: [email protected]
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Abstract

Using data from the American National Election Studies, Poole-Rosenthal DW-Nominate scores, and data on the religious affiliations of members of the United States House of Representatives, I show that religion has important independent effects on the evaluation of candidates' ideologies. The results suggest that candidates affiliated with evangelical Christianity will tend to be seen as more conservative than ideologically similar candidates from mainline Protestant denominations. Jewish candidates, in contrast, will tend to be seen as more liberal than ideologically similar mainline Protestants. Additionally, the use of religion-based stereotypes varies with frequency of church attendance. These findings attest to the external validity of recent experiment-based research on religion-based political stereotypes. The approach employed here also allows for the estimation of the magnitude of the effects of such stereotypes. The results shed light on both the importance of religion in election campaigns and the factors that influence perceptions of candidates' ideologies more generally.

Type
Articles
Information
Politics and Religion , Volume 6 , Issue 2 , June 2013 , pp. 342 - 372
Copyright
Copyright © Religion and Politics Section of the American Political Science Association 2013 

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