Choices in a Chaotic Campaign

Kim L. Fridkin is a Foundation Professor of Political Science at Arizona State University. With Patrick J. Kenney, she is the author of Taking Aim at Attack Advertising (2019) and The Changing Face of Representation: The Gender of US Senators and Constituent Communications (2014). Patrick J. Kenney is Foundation Professor of Political Science and an Executive Vice Provost at Arizona State University. With Kim L. Fridkin, he is the author of Taking Aim at Attack Advertising (2019) and The Changing Face of Representation: The Gender of US Senators and Constituent Communications (2014).

• 1. Understanding how campaigns matter; 2. 'A hot mess inside a dumpster fire inside a train wreck': understanding the impact of the first presidential debate; 3. The priming of covid-19 during the campaign: the consequences of trump's coronavirus diagnosis; 4. The murder of George Floyd: how views of black lives matter and policing affected campaign 2020; 5. 'A rigged election': how views about election integrity altered the campaign; 6. How citizens impressions of the candidates influence vote choice; 7. The impact of campaign messages on the decision to vote; 8. How campaign 2020 matters.

'Fridkin and Kenney's theory of citizen-centered campaigns provides a new lens of individual psychological predispositions alongside traditional political factors that results in a unique understanding of the chaotic and polarized election landscape of 2020, an election that has changed the trajectory of American politics.' Janet M. Box-Steffensmeier, The Ohio State University