Political Marketing and the Election of 2020

This book examines the 2020 campaign and election in the United States of America from the perspective of political marketing, always intrinsic to democratic elections. Whether focused on the development of campaign strategy, its implementation via various communication media, or how well that communication resonates and mobilizes the electorate, marketing is central to political campaigning.

The election of 2020 was arguably one of the most unique in recent memory. The campaign took place in a context which included a pandemic that prevented normal campaigning for much of the year, a historically unpopular and polarizing incumbent president and continued adaptation on the part of all political actors and citizens to a rapidly changing communication environment. Chapters in this book, by well-respected scholars in the field, focus on various aspects of this reality. This includes discussion of how candidates use various social media platforms, what effects the social media campaign has on citizens and legacy media, as well as how well marketing efforts resonate with citizens.

Political Marketing and the Election of 2020 will interest students, scholars, and researchers of political marketing, political communication, parties and elections, and American politics. The chapters in this book were originally published in the Journal of Political Marketing.

Jody C Baumgartner, Thomas Harriot College of Arts and Sciences Distinguished Professor, teaches political science at East Carolina University (ECU), Greenville, USA. He received his Ph.D. in Political Science from Miami University, Oxford, USA, in 1998, specializing in the study of campaigns and elections. He has been at ECU since 2003. Baumgartner has authored or edited 11 books, numerous journal articles, and book chapters, individually or in collaboration with others, on political humor, the vice presidency, and other subjects.

Bruce I. Newman is a Professor of Marketing and Wicklander Fellow in Business Ethics in the Department of Marketing at the Kellstadt Graduate School of Business at DePaul University, Chicago, USA. 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.