How Do State Lawmakers Decide What to Prioritize?

Amid growing gridlock and partisan polarization in the federal government, state legislatures play an increasingly vital role in shaping policy. But how do state lawmakers decide which issues deserve their attention? Do they primarily respond to local constituents’ concerns, or do they take cues from national political figures?

A new CSMaP study, accepted for publication in the Journal of Politics, provides the first large-scale, multi-state analysis of how issue attention develops in state politics. Our findings reveal a complex picture where both local and national factors shape state legislative agendas.

Why Issue Attention Matters

Before lawmakers can address any policy problem, they must first perceive it as worthy of their limited time and resources. Understanding how issues gain attention is therefore crucial to comprehending the entire policymaking process.

“There’s extensive research exploring issue-attention cycles on the national level, but we have very little evidence about how this works in state legislatures,” said CSMaP Faculty Research Affiliate Andreu Casas, a lead author of the paper who is now an Assistant Professor in Political Communication at Royal Holloway University of London. “This gap is significant because states are increasingly where the most important policy decisions are being made, on issues ranging from the minimum wage to health policy to tech policy.”

The study examines two broad — and not mutually exclusive — explanations for how state lawmakers prioritize issues. The first perspective suggests that because state governments are often seen as being closer to the people, state legislators should be particularly responsive to the priorities of local-level actors. The second perspective argues that as politics becomes more nationalized, state lawmakers may increasingly align their focus with policy debates happening at the national level.

How We Studied State Lawmakers’ Attention

To investigate this issue, our research team collected more than 122 million tweets from state and national lawmakers, local and national media outlets, and members of the general public across multiple states. After training a new AI classification tool, we analyzed the topics discussed in each message to track patterns of issue attention. 

This approach let us examine how state lawmakers responded to local-level actors (state constituents and local media outlets) and national actors (federal lawmakers and national media). The study gathered data during two distinct periods — 2018 and 2021 — allowing us to compare findings across different political contexts and presidential administrations. 

What We Found

Our findings challenge the narrative that state politics has become entirely nationalized. While national influence is certainly present, local voices still significantly shape state policy agendas.

“Despite growing concerns that politicians at all levels of government are increasingly beholden to national political debates, we found strong evidence that state legislators remain responsive to their constituents,” explained CSMaP Co-Director Jonathan Nagler, a co-author of the study. “This is especially true for partisan constituents who pay close attention to state politics.”

The study has four main findings:

1. State lawmakers listen to their constituents. Legislators consistently respond to the policy concerns of the general public in their state, particularly partisan constituents who are deeply engaged in state politics.

2. Congressional influence is also strong. Members of Congress exert top-down influence on state legislators, who frequently shift their attention to issues being discussed at the national level.

3. State media matters. While its influence is more moderate, local media outlets help shape state lawmakers’ attention to policy issues.

4. But presidents and national media don’t necessarily. Interestingly, we did not find that either Presidents Donald Trump or Joe Biden, nor national media outlets such as CNN and Fox News, have a substantial impact on state legislators’ policy focus.

Policy Implications

These findings have important implications for citizens seeking to influence state policy, suggesting that engaged constituents who follow politics closely can successfully drive attention to the issues they care about. The research also indicates that state-level media, despite decreasing in number and quality in recent years, continues to play an important democratic function.

“Our findings suggest a somewhat more optimistic view of state democracy than some recent commentary would indicate,” added Oscar Stuhler, a former Graduate Research Associate at CSMaP who is now an Assistant Professor at Northwestern University. “While nationalization is real, the connection between citizens, local media, and their state representatives remains intact in important ways.”