Abstract
Despite diversity, there are important commonalities among the activists of each American state party—in demographic characteristics as well as ideological tendency. Using data from more than 17,000 delegates to state party conventions in 11 states, we find large party differences in minority representation, but smaller age and sex differences. Ideologically, Democratic state parties are consistently liberal, Republican ones consistently conservative; in both, party loyalty is high and unrelated to ideology. Over time, changes in state party activist ranks seem to be linked to the organizational needs that arise under conditions of political competition.
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