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The Power of Brand: Beyond Interest Group Influence in U.S. State Abortion Politics

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 January 2021

Brian Robert Calfano
Brian Robert Calfano*
Affiliation:
Missouri State University
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Abstract

In this article, I examine whether a constituency's political brand—defined here as the reputation that white evangelicals and Catholics have for “pro-life” abortion policy—influences the public abortion position taken by members in six U.S. state Houses of Representatives. At issue is whether constituent political brand functions as a non-interest group influence on state legislators. A fitting of the brand literature to the state politics domain suggests that the effect of political brand might be dependent on constituent presence in a state House district—be it the relative size of the constituency or its organizational (church-based) cohesion. Results confirm the influence of constituent political brand and point to white evangelicals as having an influence on a member's abortion position based on the size and homogeneity of their constituency. Catholics possess brand influence as well, but theirs is powered by the church's organizational—parish—presence and cohesion in U.S. state House districts. These findings suggest that the two major “pro-life” constituencies in American politics are able to leverage brand in the political realm in ways that the literature has not previously considered.

Type
Research Article
Information
State Politics & Policy Quarterly , Volume 10 , Issue 3 , Fall 2010 , pp. 227 - 247
Copyright
Copyright © 2010 by the Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois

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