Constituents’ Responses to LGB Representatives in Congress

Abstract How have voters responded to the increasing “rainbow wave” of LGBTQ representatives in Congress? To date, political science has not tackled this question directly. Research on other marginalized groups, however, finds that being represented by a minority legislator affects constituents’ approval, evaluations of government, knowledge about the incumbent, and perceptions of their policy positions, among other variables. In this paper, I extend these findings to LGB Members of Congress (MCs) using pooled CES data from 2016 to 2023. The results show that constituents respond differently to LGB and straight MCs, in three ways. First, descriptive representation boosts approval ratings—LGBT constituents approve of LGB legislators at higher rates. On average, straight cisgender constituents do not rate LGB MCs differently from straight MCs, although this masks countervailing partisan reactions that cancel out in the aggregate. Second, LGB MCs have a higher profile among all voters. Regardless of their own sexuality, constituents are more likely to have information on, and be able to answer questions about, LGB MCs. Third, stereotypes of LGBTQ politicians as ideologically liberal are widespread. Even after controlling for their actual party and roll call record, LGB MCs are perceived to be significantly more liberal than straight MCs. Overall, these results show that LGB representatives are evaluated differently from their straight peers, with potential implications for their political careers.