issue_stances
To help users get the best information about past and future elections, we've worked with BallotReady to build a crosswalk between our datasets. This table includes proprietary data on the issue stances held by past and current candidates from BallotReady, which we've linked to our campaigns, districts, and voters tables.
The Issue Stances Dataset, one of the many datasets available through BallotReady’s Data Packages, is used to explore the policy stances candidates have on a variety of issues. This dataset serves as an addendum to our Candidacies Dataset to provide information on the stances that candidates ran on during each race, sourced from their campaign websites. You can easily filter this dataset to identify stances within specific issue areas, and we provide the link back to the source of the statement.
Whether you are looking for information to help your organization decide who to support this election; analyze trends in issue stances over time or by position type; or recruit candidates with issue stances that align with your values, the Issue Stances Dataset helps you hone in on your specific goals.
This dataset includes one record per stance per race. For example, a person will have one record for each distinct stance they have, grouped by issue areas. A person could have multiple stances for the same issue area (e.g., Economy or Environment) if they discuss different policy stances within that category. If a candidate lists the same stance across their primary and general races, the issue stance will appear for each race.
Various ID fields can be used to track people and positions between this dataset and our Candidacies Datasets.
- Candidacy_id can be used to to join this dataset to the Candidacies Dataset and identify the stances that the candidate presented during a given race
- Candidate_id can be used to find all of the issue stances held by a person over multiple election years and races
- Position_id can be used to track the issue stances held among candidates for the same position across multiple cycles
Field | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
position id | integer | A unique identifier for each position on a ballot in the BallotReady database |
candidate id | integer | A unique identifier for the person in the BallotReady database |
candidacy id | integer | A unique identifier for each instance of a candidate running for a position for a certain election in the BallotReady database. Issue stances are tied to candidacy records because a candidate may have different policy stances over various election years and races. |
stance id | integer | A unique identifier for the issue stance record in the BallotReady database |
issue id | integer | A unique identifier for the issue category in the BallotReady database |
issue name | character varying | The policy area that the issue stance is about (e.g., Civil Rights, Guns) determined by our team of researchers |
stance | text | Text of the candidate's issue stance, pulled directly from the campaign website in the candidate's own words |
reference url | character varying | A link to the website where the issue stance was sourced. The url may no longer be active for past candidacies, but was active at the time the issue stance was created. |
stance created at | timestamp | A timestamp of when the stance record was created |
stance updated at | timestamp | A timestamp of when the stance record was most recently updated |