Replication data for: Public Opinion in the States: A Quarter Century of Change and Stability

In "Statehouse Democracy" (1993) we developed measures of state public opinion and demonstrated that state policy liberalism is largely a function of public preferences. That analysis was mostly cross-sectional and left open the question of opinion change in the states. Here we expand on that effort by incorporating 15 additional years-worth of state-level data on ideological identification and party identification, turning our attention to the change in state opinion. The analysis here does three things: (1) we provide updated estimates of partisanship and ideology; (2) we examine the stability of state opinion over seven presidencies, reaffirming the stability of state ideology and demonstrating how ideology drives substantial changes in state partisanship, (3) describe the nature and causes of increased ideological polarization, and (4) assess how these changes illuminate changing patterns in voting in presidential elections.