Social Identity and Gubernatorial Approval: The Influence of Partisanship, Place Attachment, and Gender

Abstract

In this paper, we focus on understanding what drives individual attitudes towards their governor. Using original surveys from March and May 2020, we test the role of social identities, namely partisanship, place, and gender, in explaining gubernatorial approval. We find that partisan congruence and state attachment are strong predictors of gubernatorial approval while gender congruence does not appear to influence gubernatorial approval.