From the Pulpit to the Polls: The Electoral Consequences of Christian Talk Radio

Michael McRae ()
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Michael McRae: Department of Economics, Trinity College Dublin

No tep1325, Economic Papers from Trinity College Dublin, Economics Department

Abstract: This paper examines the impact of Salem Communications' rapid expansion of Christian- conservative radio on voter turnout and Republican vote share in U.S. presidential elections. Leveraging data on station acquisitions, technical specifications, and local topography, I identify exogenous variation in radio signal strength using a strategy adapted from Olken (2009). I construct counterfactual signal-strength measures for each county in the absence of terrain obstacles and compare them to observed re-ception, thereby isolating the portion of Salem's broadcasts plausibly unrelated to underlying political trends. Linking these signal data to county-level voting records and measures of evangelical congregations, I find that increased Salem exposure is as- sociated with a statistically significant rise in the Republican share of the vote. Results suggest that areas with sizeable evangelical populations are more sensitive to conser- vative radio programming, revealing the role religiously oriented media can play in political mobilisation. By highlighting how regulatory changes, particularly the end of the Fairness Doctrine and the 1996 Telecommunications Act, enabled the proliferation of partisan radio networks, the findings contribute to a broader literature on media influence, religious mobilisation, and electoral behaviour.

Keywords: media influence; religious broadcasting; electoral behaviour (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D72 L82 Z12 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 43 pages
Date: 2025-10
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-reg
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