Do Issue Priorities Matter? Measuring Positional Representation in the U.S. Senate

Representation and issue salience have both been studied at length. Less attention has been given to the topic of this paper: does public attention towards an issue garner greater or lesser representation on that issue? Using multilevel modeling and post-stratification, I construct novel estimates of Gallup's Most Important Problem question at the state level from 2006 through 2015. I use these estimates to analyze how public issue positions are represented within the U.S. Senate across a variety of different issue topics and levels of issue salience. My results suggest that senators generally respond to public opinion. I find a negative relationship between salience and representation, however, additional analysis suggests that salience may moderate representation differently across issue domains. While the public considers economic issues by far the most important through my sample period, senators tend to be less responsive and less congruent on these issues. For other issue types, I find evidence of greater responsiveness on more salient issues.