The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election

Citizens, journalists, and scholars have shown increased interest in candidate violations of democratic norms, ranging from former President Trump’s campaign rhetoric to the Capitol riot. But how unusual are the former President’s actions on the campaign trail? And to what extent do norm violations benefit – or harm – presidential candidates?

Other campaign strategies involve social norms around non-elites. For example, some campaign messages emphasize group norms in order to influence turnout and correct misinformed beliefs. How do communications based on group behaviors, beliefs, and attitudes affect voters during presidential campaigns?

Chapters in this edited volume explore the communications of the President, and other actors, including groups promoting turnout and fact-checking candidate statements. It uses the historic 2020 U.S. Presidential Campaign to explore the relationship between campaign messages and democratic norms, as well as the potential of social norms to shape election-year behaviors, attitudes, and perceptions among voters. This volume highlights different features of the changing role of democratic and group norms in presidential elections.

The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of the Journal of Political Marketing.

Daniel E. Bergan is Associate Professor in the Department of Communication and in James Madison College. Dr. Bergan’s current work explores whether elected officials’ perceptions are responsive to objective indicators of citizen needs, and whether mass media and direct communication from constituents, experts, and other groups can influence policymaker behavior. His other research interests include youth voter engagement, the influence of motivated reasoning on citizen beliefs and attitudes, and the effects of mass media in elections. Dr. Bergan’s work has appeared in Public Opinion Quarterly, the Journal of Communication, Political Behavior, the Journal of Political Marketing, and other journals. Dr. Bergan is the Managing Editor for North America for the Journal of Political Marketing.

Bruce I. Newman is Professor of Marketing and Wicklander Fellow in Business Ethics in the Department of Marketing, Kellstadt Graduate School of Business at DePaul University. Dr. Newman is the author/editor of several books and articles on political marketing, most recently Brand (2018 with Todd P. Newman); The Marketing Revolution in Politics (2016), and The Marketing of the President (1994). He is the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Political Marketing, and former advisor to the Clinton White House in 1995-96.