How They Map It: Citizen Perceptions of their State and Representation

Recent research shows how people think and feel about their state matters for a variety of political outcomes (i.e. Wolak 2025; Munis 2021; Pears and Sydnor 2022; Winburn et al. 2024). Usually measured as state attachment or state pride, these feelings of connection to place can influence candidate evaluations, views on gubernatorial performance, trust in government as well as policy preferences. In this paper, I build on these works to examine how people think about different parts of their state and how this relative sense of location may influence perceptions on the quality of representation the state government provides to its citizens. Specifically, this paper maps what people think about their state and uses this measurement to examine perceptions of representation.