Evidence suggests that issues may have mattered more than expected in the 2016 US presidential elections

In the lead up to the 2016 election, many commentators argued that Donald Trump’s personality and actions would encourage many voters to cross party lines or to stay home. That was emphatically not the case, with Republicans generally voting for Trump as they would any other GOP candidate. Using data from a Voting Advice Application, Diego Garzia and Lorenzo Cicchi write that while partisanship was important in the election, their initial results show that policy issues – such as the repeal of Obamacare – were important to voters as well.