Congress

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.

Mitch McConnell’s decision to shorten the chamber’s August recess isn’t unprecedented. But in an election year – when a third of senators are on the campaign trail – it’s unusual.

The congressional elections are more than four months away, but voter engagement is high when compared with comparable points in previous midterm cycles.

The U.S. House of Representatives has one voting member (435 in total) for every 747,000 or so Americans. That's by far the highest ratio of population to representatives of any industrialized democracy, and the highest it's ever been in U.S. history.