A House Divided by Itself Cannot Stand: Partisan Divide, How Americans Vote, and Why It Matters in the Modern Era

Presenter(s)

Tim Galvin

Abstract

From 2000 to 2016, there has been a sharp increase in the partisan divide among American voters, however, there do not exist many studies in the modern era describing how we have gotten to this point. It is my hypothesis that the divide was most prevalent in three key elections, those being the 2000 election between George Bush and Al Gore, the 2008 election between Barack Obama and John McCain, and the 2016 election between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, and that the levels of partisanship influenced how Americans voted in those elections. To measure this, I will be looking at the ANES data from those three elections and rating why Americans liked either the Democratic or Republican candidate on the ANES 7 point scale using six key categories: economic policies, foreign policies, campaign promises, policies, personality, and experience in politics. To measure the level of partisanship I will be looking at why respondents liked either the Democratic or Republican party and respondent views on the 2nd Amendment and gun control, abortion, the environment, and the economy.

College

College of Liberal Arts

Department

Political Science & Public Administration

Campus

Winona

First Advisor/Mentor

Elissa Alzate

Start Date

4-24-2025 2:00 PM

End Date

4-24-2025 3:00 PM

Presentation Type

Poster Session

Format of Presentation or Performance

In-Person

Session

2b=2pm-3pm

Poster Number

16

Comments

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Apr 24th, 2:00 PM Apr 24th, 3:00 PM

A House Divided by Itself Cannot Stand: Partisan Divide, How Americans Vote, and Why It Matters in the Modern Era

From 2000 to 2016, there has been a sharp increase in the partisan divide among American voters, however, there do not exist many studies in the modern era describing how we have gotten to this point. It is my hypothesis that the divide was most prevalent in three key elections, those being the 2000 election between George Bush and Al Gore, the 2008 election between Barack Obama and John McCain, and the 2016 election between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, and that the levels of partisanship influenced how Americans voted in those elections. To measure this, I will be looking at the ANES data from those three elections and rating why Americans liked either the Democratic or Republican candidate on the ANES 7 point scale using six key categories: economic policies, foreign policies, campaign promises, policies, personality, and experience in politics. To measure the level of partisanship I will be looking at why respondents liked either the Democratic or Republican party and respondent views on the 2nd Amendment and gun control, abortion, the environment, and the economy.