In:
Environmental Research: Climate, IOP Publishing, Vol. 1, No. 2 ( 2022-12-01), p. 025011-
Abstract:
Legislators who frequently advocate for climate action might be expected to cast more pro-climate votes, but pro-climate messaging alone may not predict actual voting behavior. We analyzed 401 539 tweets posted by 518 United States federal legislators over the 6 months prior to the 2020 election and identified 5350 of these as containing climate-relevant messaging. Of the 4881 tweets that we coded as promoting climate awareness or supporting action (‘pro-climate’), 92% were posted by Democratic legislators while all 138 tweets undermining climate awareness or opposing action (‘anti-climate’) were posted by Republicans. Constituent support for Congressional climate action was only weakly related to the rate of pro-climate tweeting by legislators. Overall, we found that increased pro-climate tweeting was not a significant predictor of pro-climate voting when controlling for party affiliation and constituent support for climate action. We conclude that climate-concerned voters would be best served by using party affiliation rather than climate-related messaging to judge the pro-climate voting intentions of United States legislators.
Type of Medium:
Online Resource
ISSN:
2752-5295
DOI:
10.1088/2752-5295/aca8c4
Language:
Unknown
Publisher:
IOP Publishing
Publication Date:
2022
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