ABSTRACT
Congressional leaders have a myriad of tools available to help them enunciate political messages and steer the political agenda toward their goals. Using an original dataset of tweets sent by congressional leaders in 2017 and 2018, this chapter evaluates how congressional leadership messaging—a proxy for agenda setting—changes in response to the President’s message. It finds that while congressional leaders control the legislative agenda, they can be influenced by the president, with the President’s party (Republicans) generally promoting his message and the Democrats in opposition. Additionally, intervening events (e.g., school shootings) can divert congressional messaging.
