Where are the values voters? Ideological constraint and stability among rural, suburban, and urban populations in the United States

Abstract

There has been recent attention to the political divide between urban and rural voters in the United States. It is possible that as rural and urban voting behavior has diverged, this has been driven by increasing social conservatism among rural voters. However, given that the average American is not ideologically constrained nor stable, this may not be the case. Using data from the 2010–2014 Cooperative Congressional Election Study Panel Study, this analysis compares the ideological constraint and stability of rural, suburban, and urban Americans. The results show that there has not been a divergence in rural, suburban, and urban ideologies or issue opinions in recent years. Rural and suburban respondents are more conservative than urban respondents on average, but they are not consistent conservatives, and their presidential votes are not primarily driven by a consistent set of conservative issue opinions.