Tea Party in the House: A Hierarchical Ideal Point Topic Model and Its Application to Republican Legislators in the 112th Congress

Viet-An Nguyen, Jordan Boyd-Graber, Philip Resnik, Kristina Miler


Abstract

We introduce the Hierarchical Ideal Point Topic Model, which provides a rich picture of policy issues, framing, and voting behavior using a joint model of votes, bill text, and the language that legislators use when debating bills. We use this model to look at the relationship between Tea Party Republicans and "establishment" Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives during the 112th Congress.