Donald Trump, Voters, and the Republican Party
With Election Day only three weeks away, many Republicans in Congress have found themselves facing a peculiar decision: whether they should support Donald Trump, the Republican nominee for President of the United States. Although it certainly seems unusual that a member of Congress would not support his or her party’s nominee in the presidential election, the 2016 presidential campaign has proved to be anything but usual. Republicans in Congress are themselves facing reelection, and they must decide whether supporting Mr. Trump will help or hurt their chances of returning to Capitol Hill next year.
This situation can be illustrated by considering the (positive or negative) relationships between Mr. Trump, Republican members of Congress, and likely Republican voters. In deciding whether to support Mr. Trump’s bid for the presidency, Republicans need to consider how most Republican voters in their district view Mr. Trump. Particularly, if the voters in a district overwhelmingly disapprove of Mr. Trump’s candidacy, a congressional candidate should agree with the voters and renounce Mr. Trump.
Because they are facing reelection, members of Congress obviously want to ensure positive relations between themselves and the voters in their district. By the Structural Balance Property described in the text, the relationship between voters and Mr. Trump and the relationship between a member of Congress and Mr. Trump must either both be positive or both be negative. The network would be unstable if the voters and a candidate disagreed on the issue of Mr. Trump.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/16/us/politics/paul-ryan-donald-trump-gop.html