Congress

With this year’s midterm elections just a week away, here are some key findings from Pew Research Center surveys over the past several months about some of the dynamics and issues shaping the battle for Congress.

Three-quarters of Republicans say they are optimistic about the future of the Republican Party. Democrats have a similarly bright outlook for their party.

Turnout in this year's primaries for Congress and most state governorships surged compared with the last midterms in 2014, particularly among Democrats. Nearly a fifth (19.6%) of registered voters – about 37 million – cast ballots in primary elections for the U.S. House of Representatives – a 56% increase over the 23.7 million who voted in 2014's House primaries. Turnout that year was 13.7% of registered voters.

The ways that social media shape political attitudes and the intricacies of lawmaking in Congress were two of many topics at the APSA annual conference.

Women are running for Congress in record numbers this year, and most Americans say this is a good thing. But there’s little consensus among the public about how – or whether – things would change if more women were elected. More than four-in-ten Americans say they personally hope a woman will be elected president in their lifetime.

At least 65 of the current voting members of Congress are immigrants or the children of immigrants. These members represent nearly half of U.S. states.

Younger Americans are less likely than their elders and partisans are more likely than independents to have positive views of past congressional candidate pools in their districts.

For the average moderate legislator, about 54% of a member’s Facebook posts discussed local issues between 2015 and 2017. But for the average very liberal or very conservative legislator, just 38% of posts dealt with local issues.

The U.S. congressional Facebook audience used the “angry” button in response to lawmakers’ posts nearly 14 million times following the 2016 election.

Democratic legislators’ opposition to political adversaries on Facebook spiked after Trump’s election, while "angry" reactions to posts by members of Congress increased among followers.