Storefront Campaigning

Since Barack Obama's historic and unprecedented field operations in 2008 and 2012, campaigns have centralized their voter contact operations within field offices: storefronts rented in strategically chosen communities. That model was upended in 2020: Joe Biden won the election without any offices (due to COVID-19), while Donald Trump's campaign opened over 300. Using two decades of data on office locations and interviews with campaign staffers, we show how the strategic placement and electoral impact of local field offices changed over the past twenty years, including differences in partisan strategy and effectiveness. We find that offices are somewhat more effective for Democrats than Republicans, but Democratic field operations are declining while Republicans' are increasing. We conclude by assessing whether future campaigns will invest in offices again - or if the rebirth of storefront campaigning is over and the future of political campaigning is purely digital.

List of contents

1. Back to the office; 2. Why storefronts?; 3. Placing offices; 4. Ground gains; 5. The future of field; References.

Product details

• Authors: Joshua P. Darr, Joshua P. (Syracuse University Darr, Sean Whyard
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press ELT
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 30.11.2024
• EAN: 9781009443333
• ISBN: 978-1-0-0944333-3
• No. of pages: 92
• Series: Elements in Campaigns and Elections
• Subjects: Social sciences, law, business > Political science > Political science and political education; USA, POLITICAL SCIENCE / American Government / General, United States of America, USA, Political campaigning & advertising, Political campaigning and advertising, Elections & referenda, Elections and referenda / suffrage