Twitter (X) network of U.S. state legislators

The network includes the Twitter (X) following interactions between U.S. state legislators. The data was collection by Gopal et al. (2022) and Kim et al. (2022). For this network, we only include the largest connected component of state legislators that were active on Twitter in the six months leading up to and including the insurrection at the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021. All state senate and state representatives for states with a bicameral system are included and all state legislators for state (Nebraska) with a unicameral system are included.

Usage

data(state_twitter)

Format

A statnet's network class object. It has the following categorical attributes for each state legislator.

gender

factor stating whether the legislator is 'female' or 'male'.

party

party affiliation of the legislator, which is 'Democratic', 'Independent' or 'Republican'.

race

race with the following levels: 'Asian or Pacific Islander', 'Black', 'Latino', 'MENA(Middle East and North Africa)','Multiracial', 'Native American', and 'White'.

state

character of the state that the legislator represents.

References

Gopal, Kim, Nakka, Boehmke, Harden, Desmarais. The National Network of U.S. State Legislators on Twitter. Political Science Research & Methods, Forthcoming.

Kim, Nakka, Gopal, Desmarais,Mancinelli, Harden, Ko, and Boehmke (2022). Attention to the COVID-19 pandemic on Twitter: Partisan differences among U.S. state legislators. Legislative Studies Quarterly 47, 1023–1041.