2022 Sister District Political Strategy
As we head into this critically important midterm election year, Sister District is excited to announce our 2022 state targets and political strategy.
2021 Post-Election Analysis: Political Landscape & Larger Trends
Virginia’s 2021 elections were challenging for Democrats. Nearly a week later, votes continue to be counted in the two races that could leave the House in a partisan tie — Sister District candidates Alex Askew and Martha Mugler. As we’ve written, the Sister District community had a tremendous and creative year providing fundraising, field support, […]
An American Melting Pot? Describing the constituencies of state legislative Democrats and Republicans in the United States
This archival study sought to determine if certain constituent demographics in state legislative districts were associated with higher levels of Democratic state legislative representation (compared to Republican representation)
“Identity politics”: Activating identity to gain political power
In this blog we will discuss the social psychological underpinnings of identity, and how appeals to identity are used in a variety of political contexts.
Under Pressure: Harnessing Social Norms and Social Pressure for Persuasion
Social norms are rules about ways of thinking and behaving that are deemed socially acceptable by one’s society. Read more about the different types of social pressures.
Vote by Mail Ballot Chase: Do reminder text messages increase voter turnout?
This study explored whether chasing requested absentee ballots with a text message reminder to return them could increase voter turnout in Georgia.
VA Primaries 2021
The Virginia primaries are officially behind us! It was a wild primary season, with historic activity down ballot at the statewide and state legislative levels. Read on for a quick update on the primaries.
Blue wave[s] substudy: Does receiving a third card help reactivate turnout effects ahead of the general election?
Abstract: In 2020, SDAN ran a Two Primaries Postcard Study, which was a randomized controlled trial that found that primary voter turnout among voters with low-mid turnout propensity for presidential primaries (turnout scores of 25-60) and high Democratic support scores (partisanship scores of 80+) could be improved by sending such voters a handwritten GOTV/voter education […]
Downstream analysis of primary postcard studies: Does getting GOTV postcards before the primary increase general election voter turnout?
This analysis explores the general election voting behavior of voters who SDAN sent GOTV postcards to ahead of the 2020 primaries, to determine if the increase in voter turnout we observed in those studies traveled downstream to increase turnout among those voters in the November 2020 general election.
Persuasive politics: Cialdini’s principles of persuasion at work
Social psychology, and the work of Dr. Robert Cialdini and colleagues in particular, has had an outsized influence on modern-day political strategies. Here, we review the principles and talk about how they are used in politics.
