National identities influence voting behaviour, especially when these identities are activated by public and political debates. However, research on identity activation has either been limited to observational data that cannot directly test for exposure to situational cues or has lacked detailed analysis of real-world examples of these cues. Consequently, it remains unclear whether individuals' contacts and perceptions of the discursive environment activate social identities to guide voting intentions. To address this, we employ difference-in-difference models using real-world experimental data from a rural German municipality where a local citizen council is set up to deliberate on the future of a community-owned building. We investigate whether voting intentions for parties advocating local protectionism increase as a result of contact with this local citizen council and thus the increased public discourse of a local issue.