VOTES, ISSUES AND INFLUENCE: MEASURING INCUMBENT RESPONSIVENESS TO CHALLENGER CAMPAIGNS IN THE U.S. HOUSE

Contemporary research highlights the role of losing congressional challengers in shaping the issue-agendas of incumbent legislators, a process called “issue uptake”. I expand the concept of uptake to include other types of influence and previously overlooked types of challengers. First, I test for the presence of uptake in the modern House of Representatives. Then, using regression analysis and original data for over 600 incumbents and 300,000 bills, I test the hypothesis that an incumbent’s electoral vulnerability is linked to the level of influence a losing challenger has on his or her legislative actions. I find limited evidence that losing candidates affect the issue-agendas or ideological voting patterns of incumbents regardless of whether the losing challenger is from a major or minor party. Even as electoral competition becomes more intense, incumbents respond rather indifferently to the issue-platforms and issue-positions of challengers whom they defeat in general elections.