Attention to the COVID-19 Pandemic on Twitter: Partisan Differences Among U.S. State Legislators

Subnational governments in the United States have taken the lead on many aspects of the response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Variation in government activity across states offers the opportunity to analyze responses in comparable settings. We study a common and informative activity among state officials—state legislators’ attention to the pandemic on Twitter. We find that legislators’ attention to the pandemic strongly correlates with the number of cases in the legislator’s state, the national count of new deaths, and the number of pandemic-related public policies passed within the legislator’s state. Furthermore, we find that the degree of responsiveness to pandemic indicators differs significantly across political parties, with Republicans exhibiting weaker responses, on average. Lastly, we find significant differences in the content of tweets about the pandemic by Democratic and Republican legislators, with Democrats focused on health indicators and impacts, and Republicans focused on business impacts and opening the economy.

This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: [Attention to the COVID‐19 Pandemic on Twitter: Partisan Differences Among U.S. State Legislators. Legislative Studies Quarterly 47, 4 p1023-1041 (2021)], which has been published in final form at https://doi.org/10.1111/lsq.12367. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Use of Self-Archived Versions: https://authorservices.wiley.com/author-resources/Journal-Authors/licensing/self-archiving.html#3.

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Work Title Attention to the COVID-19 Pandemic on Twitter: Partisan Differences Among U.S. State Legislators
Access
Open Access
Creators
  1. Taegyoon Kim
  2. Nitheesha Nakka
  3. Ishita Gopal
  4. Bruce A. Desmarais
  5. Abigail Mancinelli
  6. Jeffrey J. Harden
  7. Hyein Ko
  8. Frederick J. Boehmke
Keyword
  1. COVID-19
  2. Twitter
  3. Legislators
  4. U.S. states
  5. Partisanship
License In Copyright (Rights Reserved)
Work Type Article
Publisher
  1. Legislative Studies Quarterly
Publication Date December 15, 2021
Publisher Identifier (DOI)
  1. https://doi.org/10.1111/lsq.12367
Deposited January 23, 2023

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Version 1
published

  • Created
  • Added state_covid_attention_LSQ_CA_MT.pdf
  • Added Creator Taegyoon Kim
  • Added Creator Nitheesha Nakka
  • Added Creator Ishita Gopal
  • Added Creator Bruce A. Desmarais
  • Added Creator Abigail Mancinelli
  • Added Creator Jeffrey J. Harden
  • Added Creator Hyein Ko
  • Added Creator Frederick J. Boehmke
  • Published
  • Updated Keyword, Subtitle, Publication Date Show Changes
    Keyword
    • COVID-19, Twitter, Legislators, U.S. states, Partisanship
    Subtitle
    • Partisan Differences Among U.S. State Legislators
    Publication Date
    • 2021-01-01
    • 2021-12-15
  • Updated