The Long Reach of US Party Politics
Transnational Campaign Involvement Among Democratic Partisans Living Abroad
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 12376725 |
|---|---|
| Authors | James A Mccann (0000-0002-0925-597X, Purdue University, corresponding author), Amanda Klekowski Von Koppenfels (0000-0002-8322-3693, University of Kent), Ronald B Rapoport (0000-0001-5598-7373, William & Mary), Ronald Rapoport (William & Mary) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Volume | 59 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 283-293 |
| Publication date | 2026-02-11 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | PS Political Science & Politics (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1049-0965 • E-ISSN: 1537-5935 |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1017/s1049096525101728 |
| OpenAlex | W7128497843 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 43 |
Much is known about the factors that shape partisan campaign activism in the United States and other democracies. In contrast to this voluminous literature, political scientists have given relatively little attention to an emerging phenomenon in contemporary party politics: the mobilization via “emigrant party branches” of partisans living outside of the territorial borders of their native country. We address this gap in the literature through an analysis of Democrats Abroad—the official overseas arm of the US Democratic Party—during the 2024 election cycle. Drawing from an original two-wave panel survey of party members, we demonstrate that some of the forces that prompt campaign activism in the domestic United States hold for partisans overseas. At the same time, factors pertaining to the migration experience and settlement in another country also affect engagement in American campaigns. Most notably, we find that overseas Democrats who become integrated into the party system of their residential country are more likely to participate in American elections from the distance. This finding contributes a fresh perspective to models of political transnationalism and “campaign spillover” in electoral research—that is, the impact that partisan engagement in one context has on subsequent involvement in separate domains
Context (archaeology · Democracy · Mobilization · Perspective (graphical · Politics · Settlement (finance · Transnationalism · Diaspora, migration, transnational identity · Electoral Systems and Political Participation · Populism, Right-Wing Movements
Migrant Transnationalism
Religious identification and politicization in the face of discrimination
Mexicans and Colombians at Home and Abroad
The Mexican State and Transmigrant Organizations
Migrants’ Multi-Sited Social Lives
Party expats? Mapping transnational party branches of French, German and UK parties
Political parties abroad as actors of transnational politics
Transnational Behavior in Comparative Perspective
Migrants' Voter Turnout in the Home Country Elections
Building Party Support Abroad
Investigating Party Abroad
Turning rights into ballots
Migrant votes ‘here’ and ‘there’
Electoral (non)alignment between resident and non-resident voters
Transnational political engagement and emigrant voting
Lost in Acculturation? Premigratory Exposure to Democracy and Immigrants’ Political Trust in the United States
Immigrant Incorporation and Sociocultural Transnationalism
The Politics of Migrants’ Transnational Political Practices
Understanding transnational political involvement among Senegalese migrants
Premigratory political experiences with autocracy and violence and immigrants’ willingness to vote
Democrats abroad
Voice and Equality
Dual Nationality Among Latinos
Defining American Identity in the Twenty-First Century
Candidate-Centered Sources of Party Change
Intra-Party Democracy and Party Unity
States or parties? Emigrant outreach and transnational engagement
A Voice Despite Exit
Incorporating Immigrants into Canadian Politics
All in the Family
Turning On or Turning Off? Mobilization and Demobilization Effects of Participation in Presidential Nomination Campaigns
Presidential Nomination Campaigns and Party Mobilization
The emigration state and the modern geopolitical imagination
Transnational absentee voting in the 2006 Mexican presidential election
When parties go abroad
Whatever Happened to Simultaneity? Transnational Migration Theory and Dual Engagement in Sending and Receiving Countries
Conceiving and researching transnationalism
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |