Follow the Leader?

Just published: Follow the Leader?: How Voters Respond to Politicians’ Policies and Performance by Gabriel S. Lenz.

The author writes: “I find surprisingly little evidence that policy stances matter to voters. Specifically, I find that voters’ prior policy views rarely lead them to change votes or even approval of candidates during campaigns. Instead, voters usually choose candidates for some other reason, such as the election-year economy, and then follow their preferred candidate on policy issues, adopting that candidate’s stances as their own. Rather than leading politicians on policy, voters mostly follow.”