Field offices for Members of Congress allow staff to engage in casework and solve local problems. Office locations are forms of representation and a strategic political choice to harness voters. Utilizing archived websites to track the physical location of Members of the U.S. House’s district offices from 2012–2020, we explore whether redistricting and representative identity lead to changes in the location of district offices for newly elected House Members. Using geolocation at the zip code level, the results show that newly elected members were likely to move their district offices following redistricting, confirming alterations in geographic boundaries. Additionally, we uncover evidence that incoming women House Members strategically relocate their office locations to areas where they can support local constituents’ needs. The result for partisan identity is less straightforward as both parties strive to locate their offices in politically beneficial areas that are more racially diverse due to the changing demographic composition of the U.S. The results suggest that members shift district offices to accommodate new constituencies and strategically position their physical office locations.
AistrupJ. A. (2014). The southern strategy revisited: Republican top-down advancement in the south. University Press of Kentucky.
3.
AntoliniD. (1984). Women in local government: An overview. In FlammangJ. A. (Ed.), Political women: Current roles in state and local government (pp. 23–40). Sage.
4.
AnziaS. F.BerryC. R. (2011). The Jackie (and Jill) Robinson effect: Why do congresswomen outperform congressmen?American Journal of Political Science, 55(3), 478–493. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-5907.2011.00512.x
5.
AshworthS.Ethan Bueno de Mesquita. (2006). Delivering the goods: Legislative particularism in different electoral and institutional settings. The Journal of Politics, 68(1), 168–179. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2508.2006.00378.x
6.
AtkinsonM. L.WindettJ. H. (2019). Gender stereotypes and the policy priorities of women in congress. Political Behavior, 41(3), 769–789. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11109-018-9471-7
7.
BarnesT. D.BeaulieuE.SaxtonG. W. (2018). Sex and corruption: How sexism shapes voters’ responses to scandal. Politics, Groups, and Identities, 8(1), 103–121. https://doi.org/10.1080/21565503.2018.1441725
8.
BarretoM.SeguraG. M.WoodsN. D. (2004). The mobilizing effect of majority-minority districts on Latino turnout. American Political Science Review, 98(1), 65–75. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0003055404001005
9.
BauerN. M.CargileI. A. M. (2023). Women get the job done: Differences in constituent communication from female and male lawmakers. Politics and Gender, 19(4), 1–24. https://doi.org/10.1017/s1743923x23000259
10.
BerganD. E.ColeR. T. (2015). Call your legislator: A field experimental study of the impact of a constituency mobilization campaign on legislative voting. Political Behavior, 37(1), 27–42. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11109-014-9277-1
11.
BondJ. R. (1985). Dimensions of district attention over time. American Journal of Political Science, 29(2), 330–347. https://doi.org/10.2307/2111170
12.
BurdenB. C. (2007). Personal roots of representation. Princeton University Press.
13.
CainB.FerejohnJ.FiorinaM. (1987). The personal vote: Constituency service and electoral independence. Harvard University Press.
14.
CanonD. T. (2020). Race, redistricting, and representation: The unintended consequences of black majority districts. University of Chicago Press.
Congressional Management Foundation. (2011). Perception of citizen advocacy on capitol HIll. Congressional Management Foundation.
17.
CostaM. (2017). How responsive are political elites? A meta-analysis of experiments on public officials. Journal of Experimental Political Science, 4(3), 241–254. https://doi.org/10.1017/xps.2017.14
18.
CostaM. (2021). He said, she said: The gender double bind in legislator-constituent communication. Politics and Gender, 17(4), 528–551. https://doi.org/10.1017/s1743923x19000862
19.
CoverA. D. (1980). Contacting congressional constituents: Some patterns of perquisite use. American Journal of Political Science, 24(1), 125–135. https://doi.org/10.2307/2110928
20.
DavidsonR. H.OleszekW. J.LeeF. E.SchicklerE. (2019). Congress and its Members. CQ Press.
21.
DiamondI. (1977). Sex Role in the State House. Yale University Press.
EggersA. C.VivyanN.WagnerM. (2018). Corruption, accountability, and gender: Do female politicians face higher standards in public life?The Journal of Politics, 80(1), 321–326. https://doi.org/10.1086/694649
25.
FennoR. F. (1977). U.S. house members in their constituencies: An exploration. American Political Science Review, 71(3), 883–917. https://doi.org/10.2307/1960097
26.
FennoR. F. (1978). Home style: House members in their districts. HarperCollins.
27.
FlammangJ. A. (Ed.), (1984). Political women: Current roles in state and local government (8). Sage.
28.
FromanL. A. (1963). Congressmen and their constituencies. Rand McNally.
29.
GelmanA.KingG. (1994). Enhancing democracy through legislative redistricting. American Political Science Review, 88(3), 541–559. https://doi.org/10.2307/2944794
30.
GerrityJ. C.OsbornT.MendezJ. M. (2007). Women and representation: A different view of the district?Politics and Gender, 3(2), 179–200. https://doi.org/10.1017/s1743923x07000025
31.
GriffinJ. D.FlavinP. (2011). How citizens and their legislators prioritize spheres of representation. Political Research Quarterly, 64(3), 520–533. https://doi.org/10.1177/1065912910373552
HerreraR.YawnM. (1999). The Emergence of the Personal Vote. Journal of Politics, 61(1), 136–150.
34.
Hertel-FernandezA.MildenbergerM.StokesL. C. (2019). Legislative staff and representation in congress. American Political Science Review, 113(1), 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0003055418000606
35.
HuntC. (2021). Expanding constituency support through shared local roots in U.S. house primaries. American Politics Research, 49(2), 233–244. https://doi.org/10.1177/1532673x20959606
36.
JewellM. E. (1983). Legislator-constituency relations and the representative process. Legislative Studies Quarterly, 8(3), 303–337. https://doi.org/10.2307/439589
37.
JohannesJ. R. (1980). The distribution of casework in the U.S. congress: An uneven burden. Legislative Studies Quarterly, 5(4), 517–544. https://doi.org/10.2307/439572
38.
Judge-LordD.PowellE. N.GrimmerJ. (2026). How shifting priorities and capacity affect policy work and constituency service: Evidence from a census of legislator requests to U.S. federal agencies. American Journal of Political Science, 70(1), 1–19. https://doi.org/10.1111/ajps.70031
39.
KallaJ. L.BroockmanD. E. (2016). Campaign contributions facilitate access to congressional officials: A randomized field experiment. American Journal of Political Science, 60(3), 545–558. https://doi.org/10.1111/ajps.12180
40.
KaslovskyJ. (2022). Senators at home: Local attentiveness and policy representation in congress. American Political Science Review, 116(2), 645–661. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0003055421001088
KoetzleW. (1998). The impact of constituency diversity upon the competitiveness of U.S. house elections, 1962–96. Legislative Studies Quarterly, 23(4), 561–573. https://doi.org/10.2307/440240
44.
LevyM. R.KramerM. S. (1972). The ethnic factor: How America’s minorities decide elections. Simon & Schuster.
45.
LowandeK.RitchieM.LauterbachE. (2019). Descriptive and substantive representation in congress: Evidence from 80,000 congressional inquiries. American Journal of Political Science, 63(3), 644–659. https://doi.org/10.1111/ajps.12443
46.
MansbridgeJ. (1999). Should blacks represent blacks and women represent women? A contingent “yes.”. The Journal of Politics, 61(3), 628–657. https://doi.org/10.2307/2647821
47.
McDonaldM. P. (2022). From pandemic to insurrection: Voting in the 2020 U.S. presidential election. Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. KG.
48.
MummoloJ.NallC. (2017). Why partisans do not sort: The constraints on political segregation. The Journal of Politics, 79(1), 45–59. https://doi.org/10.1086/687569
49.
NivenD.CoverB. P.SolimineM. (2021). Are individuals harmed by gerrymandering? Examining access to congressional district offices. Social Science Quarterly, 102(1), 29–46. https://doi.org/10.1111/ssqu.12883
50.
OsbornT.MendezJ. M. (2010). Speaking as women: Women and floor speeches in the senate. Journal of Women, Politics & Policy, 31(1), 1–21. https://doi.org/10.1080/15544770903501384
51.
ParkerD. C. W.GoodmanC. (2009). Making a good impression: Resource allocation, home styles, and Washington work. Legislative Studies Quarterly, 34(4), 493–524. https://doi.org/10.3162/036298009789869709
52.
ParkerD. C. W.GoodmanC. (2013). Our state's never had better friends: Resource allocation, home styles, and dual representation in the senate. Political Research Quarterly, 66(2), 370–384. https://doi.org/10.1177/1065912912448539
53.
SchiffS. H.SmithS. S. (1983). Generational change and the allocation of staff in the U.S. congress (pp. 457–467). Legislative Studies Quarterly.
54.
SchillerW. J. (2002). Sharing the same home turf: How senators from the same state compete for geographic electoral support. In Box-SteffensmeierJ. M.OppenheimerB. I.CanonD. T. (Eds.), U.S. senate exceptionalism (pp. 109–131). Ohio State University Press.
55.
SchneiderM. C.HolmanM. R.DiekmanA. B.McAndrewT. (2016). Power, conflict, and community: How gendered views of political power influence women’s political ambition. Political Psychology, 37(4), 515–531. https://doi.org/10.1111/pops.12268
56.
SharpeC. L.GarandJ. C. (2001). Race, roll calls, and redistricting: The impact of race-based redistricting on congressional roll-call voting. Political Research Quarterly, 54(1), 31–51. https://doi.org/10.2307/449206
57.
StaeheliL. A. (2003). Women and the work of community. Environment and Planning, 35(5), 815–831. https://doi.org/10.1068/a35134
58.
SwersM. L. (2019). Women in the club: Gender and policymaking in the senate. University of Chicago Press.
