XIN Qiang and YU Jingyi, "Political Polarization and 2020 U.S.Congressional Election: Background, Process, and Impact,"
Fudan American Review, No. 1, 2021

[Abstract] Political polarization is one of the most significant characteristics in contemporary American politics. Since the 1970s,U.S.politicshas become increasingly polarized, with growing divisions within the general public and political elites over ideology, party attachment, and public policy. After the fermentation of Trump’s four-year, political polarization reached are cord level in history before the 2020 election. In this context, this paper focuses on the interaction between political polarization and the 2020 U.S. congressional election. We find that in terms of the influence of ideology, party attachments, and public policy on the election results, 1) party attachment is generally the most important;2)ideology is positively related to party attachment, but the effect is less significant; and 3)public policy is “selectively” related with the congressional elections, with some issues being more important than others. As party loyalty increases, voters’ behavior in the general election is more centered on ideological and partisan positions than candidates’ personalities or capabilities. When it comes to election results, the inter-party structural stalemate resulted from the narrowing seat gap, the voting of lawmakers based on ideological positions, and the intra-party divisions’ accentuation in the post-election period keep U.S. political polarization at a high level.

[Keywords] Political polarization; 2020 U.S. election; U.S. congress; electoral-polarization; party attachment