In the American political system we expect some meaningful connection between citizen opinion and legislative voting behavior. The literature has told us that on a broad scale this connection exists. However, we really know very little about influences on that relationship. The question here is how institutions shape representation. I use the variance available in state legislatures to explore how legislative and electoral institutions influence policy responsiveness. Results presented throughout the manuscript show that institutions benefit or constrain representation. Legislative institutions benefit representation by defining the capacity for representation, and electoral institutions provide the incentives for representation. And second, results show that legislators less responsive to the preferences of their geographic district are more likely to be defeated in future elections. The effect of representation on re-election in this analysis is greater than other indicators of electoral defeat.