Our Thursday class meeting will be a debrief on the 2022 campaign, so I want you to offer your take on the following topics. First, what forms of campaign communication do you think were most effective for your candidate and which strategies did not work/were not effective? Second, how would you assess the media coverage of the midterm election results, both from Election Night and the following days? Finally, how would you assess voters' reactions to the results of this year’s midterm races (both the one you tracked and others) based on what people are posting on social media? Refer to at least one previous class reading and two outside sources to support your response.
Work Cited:
ReplyDelete1. Kika, Thomas. “Dr. Oz Rally Sees ‘Half the Crowd’ Leave as Trump Still Speaking: Reporter.” Newsweek, Newsweek, 7 Nov. 2022, https://www.newsweek.com/dr-oz-rally-sees-half-crowd-leave-trump-still-speaking-reporter-1757290.
2. Alic, Haris. “Dr. Oz on the Cusp of History as First Muslim American Senator.” Fox News, FOX News Network, 7 Nov. 2022, https://www.foxnews.com/politics/dr-oz-cusp-history-first-muslim-american-senator.
3. “2022 Midterms: Why Pennsylvania May Not Have Election Night Results.” 6abc Philadelphia, 8 Nov. 2022, https://6abc.com/2022-midterms-election-day-pennsylvania-polls-results/12428239/.
4. Ahn, Ashley. “Oprah Rejects Her Protégé Dr. Oz and Backs Democrat John Fetterman in Pa. Senate Race.” NPR, NPR, 4 Nov. 2022, https://www.npr.org/2022/11/04/1134340900/oprah-dr-oz-fetterman-pennsylvania-senate-endorsement.
Val Demings fought so hard in the Senate race against her opponent Marco Rubio. Demings did a fantastic job at raising funds and surpassing Rubio’s fundraising numbers. However, Marco Rubio still won a third term. I think Val Deming’s most effective form of campaign communication was her advertisements. Val Demings' advertisements successfully outlined her morals and values while connecting her to her audience. In the class reading “The Val Demings Gamble” from The Atlantic, Adam Harris said, “Political moderates could admire her centrism; people of color could identify with her race; women could identify with her gender. Demings has converted that appeal into a fundraising advantage, pulling in millions more in donations than Rubio so far this cycle, and spending more than twice as much as him on television ads” (Harris, 1). However, I believe Demings failed to show creativity in her campaign communication. Mostly all of Val Demings' campaign communications involved her insulting and degrading her opponent, Marco Rubio. Val Demings should have taken the time to discuss how she planned to address pressing social issues in Florida and maybe she would have had a chance at defeating her opponent.
ReplyDeleteI personally believe that the media coverage of the midterm election results have been accurate and generally non-bias. Many media coverage platforms like the Tampa Bay Times have a timeline of the updates from Election Night. Tampa Bay Times showed how at 7:08 p.m. Val Demings led Marco Rubio in Broward County by 28 points. Later at 8:20 p.m. Tampa Bay Times updated that the race for the U.S. Senate had been called and Demings received 41.3% of the votes losing to her opponent Marco Rubio who received 57.7% (Cridlin). The article in Tampa Bay Times has even been re-updated today, the day after the elections.
Based on what I have seen on social media, many voters are highly upset that some States are taking their time to count votes. In fact, some tweets I saw on Twitter suggested that Florida has 67 counties, 953 cities, and 22+ million people however, still declared a winner on election night while states like Pennsylvania cannot say the same. For the Florida elections, many voters had addressed their concerns that Ron DeSantis is attempting to block Department of Justice election monitors from gaining access to polling places. One tweet by the Jewish Resister reads “In Florida, Ron DeSantis & the Gop are banning federal election monitors. Nothing says we aren’t cheating like you’re not allowed to see the process, because we don’t have to prove anything to you.” (@JewishResister).
“Florida Midterm Elections: Republicans' Historic Night as It Happened.” Tampa Bay Times, https://www.tampabay.com/news/florida-politics/elections/2022/11/08/florida-election-midterm-results-pinellas-pasco-hillsborough-live/.
DeleteHarris, Adam. “The Val Demings Gamble.” The Atlantic, Atlantic Media Company, 12 Sept. 2022, https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2022/09/val-demings-midterms-2022-democratic-party/671327/.
The Jewish Ginger Resister [@JewishResister]. “In Florida, Ron DeSantis & the Gop are banning federal election monitors. Nothing says we aren’t cheating like you’re not allowed to see the process, because we don’t have to prove anything to you.” Twitter, 8 Nov 2022, 1:56 pm, https://twitter.com/jewishresister/status/1590055685441867777?s=46&t=oOAGboMnMxWNp38TmNI14w
With the midterm elections underway, one thing that was announced recently was that John Fetterman is projected to be the winner of the Pennsylvania senate race. It’s difficult to say what was the exact reason for his victory, but I think one reason is because Fetterman has been able to effectively retain his image as a true working class Pennsylvanian man via his advertisements. It’s no secret that advertisements are key to creating a candidate's brand. According to the book In the 2020 Campaign, A Communication Perspective, an effective political ad campaign contains the following “they act as simplifiers highlighting a few key pieces of information about the candidate, they are unique and clearly differentiated from competitors, they reassure voters and minimize perceptions of risk, they are aspirational and offer an emotional link to a desired way of life, they symbolize the internal values of the candidate and offer voters reasons to choose them over others, and they are perceived as credible and able to deliver on their campaign promises” (Burns & Marchese, page 116). The Fetterman campaign is no exception to these rules. With his ads featuring him interacting with workers and slogans like “For All Pennsylvania” or “Every County, Every Vote”, he showed that he cared about the people of Pennsylvania and that he knew what changes they wanted. Fetterman’s brand was all about Pennsylvania, and he made it impossible to not think of the state when thinking of him. Even when he was attacked for getting financial aid from his parents until adulthood or mocking him for buying a relative’s house for one dollar. It didn’t make a dent in Fetterman’s working class image because he visually showed people that he cares about the working class rather than just saying that he cares. I think the weakest communication strategy of the Fetterman campaign was his social media attacks on Oz. While funny at first, I feel like the repetitive nature of the attacks made them lose all of their original effectiveness. I think it shows that this strategy wasn’t as effective as people thought when after the debate all focus was on if Fetterman was fit to be in the senate and nobody was talking about Oz.
ReplyDeleteSome of the media coverage of this victory has been similar to an underdog story. An article from Time magazine stated that Fetterman won Pennsylvania over because of his relatability. They write, “He knew that Pennsylvania voters would respond to a candidate who seemed like a Pennsylvania guy, who shopped at their grocery stores and rooted for their sports teams and shared their inside jokes and raised his family like they raised theirs. He knew that they would react badly to his opponent, Dr. Mehmet Oz, a slick TV doctor from New Jersey” (Alter, paragraph 2). The portrayal of the Fetterman/Oz race as this David and Goliath-esque story is meant to play to Fetterman’s strength as a relatable politician. Even if I don’t think this kind of angle is entirely accurate because Fetterman had governmental experience before and wasn’t a political newcomer like Oz. Another angle is that Fetterman’s win is pivotal for the democrats as a whole. An article from Newsweek writes “The Democrat's victory has given the party renewed hope of retaining control of the Senate, which some pollsters considered a toss-up” (Roche, paragraph 15). This part is true, now that Pennsylvania has gone to the democrats, it will make it much more difficult for the republicans to retake the senate. As of right now, the elections are still going on so I don’t know who will take control of the senate. However, just because Fetterman won doesn’t mean that the democrats should think it's guaranteed that they will keep the senate. After all, anything is possible in an election season.
DeleteThe social media reaction to the race I found to be pretty standard stuff. His supporters happily congratulated him and his detractors attacked him. Although I saw some people acting like this was a humiliating defeat for Oz. Which I don’t think is true since he lost by 3% of the vote, which is a relatively close margin. However, some people have also been saying that Fetterman shows the path forward for future democratic campaigns with his populist message. I’m not sure if Fetterman’s platform would become the main democratic platform, but I wouldn’t be surprised if more politicians tried to emulate Fetterman’s style.
Overall, Fetterman fought to the very end for this victory and I hope he does well for the people of Pennsylvania.
Works cited:
Alter, Charlotte. “How John Fetterman Beat Dr. Oz and Won Pennsylvania.” Time, Time, 9 Nov. 2022, https://time.com/6231291/how-fetterman-won-pennsylvania-senate-seat/.
Burns, Lisa M., and Courtney Marchese. “Chapter 7 Political Branding in a Digital Age The Role of Design- and Image-Based Messaging Strategies in the 2020 Presidential Campaign.” The 2020 Presidential Campaign: A Communications Perspective, Rowman & Littlefield, an Imprint of The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc., Lanham, MD, 2021, pp. 115–134.
Roche, Darragh. “John Fetterman Revels in Beating Oz in Victory Speech: 'We Jammed Them up'.” MSN, 9 Nov. 2022, https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/john-fetterman-revels-in-beating-oz-in-victory-speech-we-jammed-them-up/ar-AA13TUwE.
What I think one of the strongest forms of communication that Oz did throughout his campaign was in the debate when he positioned himself as a strong candidate that wasn’t some Hollywood celebrity and was the real deal. In the excerpt “Debates in Political Campaigns” by Trent, J. in the book “Political Campaign Communication: Principles and Practice,” she says that “The candidate who is perceived to have won the debate is often a function of what people expected.” (Trent 2011). In the debate, Oz was the clear winner, as it appeared to me at least (no bias because I was doing a project on him, I promise). Oz just seemed like the clear-cut winner, and he presented himself as a candidate that the moderate Republican and the more right leaning Democrats could also vote for. When looking up the election on Wednesday morning, Oz got 47 percent of the votes which is only three precents less than Fetterman and in all honesty, after people saying how close this race was going to be, throughout the night, the race was really anyone’s game, and it wasn’t until later that night that Fetterman started to pull away with the lead. A form of communication that did not work for Oz was his lack of activeness the night of the election on his social media on Instagram and Twitter alone, between the two platforms, there was a total of five posts and that was it, you would think that a candidate would be a little more vocal than five posts scattered throughout the day, it’s just a little weird that Oz went a little quiet and decided to sit back and watch the election go down instead of encouraging his vase to get out and vote.
ReplyDeleteI would assess the media coverage as pretty heavy the night of the election and the day after from all different news articles as well as voters. One of the things that was interesting to me was some of the articles that were posted by different news outlets the morning of the election and the days leading up to Tuesday. One of the most interesting articles I saw was titled “Mehmet Oz slightly favored in Pennsylvania Senate Race; FiveThirtyEight” written by George Stockburger. In the article it stated that “Republican Mehmet Oz is slightly favored to win the Pennsylvania Senate race for the first time since June, according to FiveThirtyEight. The election forecasters gave Oz a 57% chance of winning the U.S. Senate race in Pennsylvania over Democrat John Fetterman going into the Nov. 8 election.” (Stockburger 2022), yet in the end, Oz did end up losing to Fetterman by three precent points. Due to the polling places running out of paper in states like PA (a very inconvenient time to run out I would say), on Twitter the next morning, there were a lot of Oz supporters and Republicans shouting that it was a set up by the Democrats and that this was their plan. I’ve also seen a lot of left leaning supporters praising the Fetterman win and how this is a big step in the right direction for the state.
One of the main takeaways from the Pennsylvania senate race was that this was a Democrat win as well as a win against Trump. All throughout the day I’ve seen headlines like “Democrat John Fetterman defeats Trump-backed GOP rival Dr. Mehmet Oz in pivotal Pennsylvania Senate race, NBC News projects” written by Kevin Breuninger of CNBC where the third bullet point under the key points section is “The projected verdict deals another blow to Trump, who backed Oz in a hard-fought GOP primary election and campaigned for him in the general,” (Breuninger 2022). Another article written by CNN by Eric Bradner, Dan Merica and Gregory Krieg titled “Takeaways from the 2022 midterm elections: Battle for control of the House and Senate still up in the air,” stated that “it appears that Trump knows it, too: He is “livid” and “screaming at everyone,” a Trump adviser who has been in contact with Trump’s inner circle told CNN on Wednesday morning” (Bradner, Merica, Krieg 2022) when talking about Trumps night overall following the losses of key states like Pennsylvania.
As of November 10, at 6:30 am, the New York Times reports that John Fetterman beat opponent Mehmet Oz 50.8% to 46.8% (“Pennsylvania Election Results”). Although it should be an expectation, people everywhere praised Oz for calling Fetterman Wednesday morning to concede his loss and congratulate him on his win. Oz said “We are facing big problems as a country and we need everyone to put down their partisan swords and focus on getting the job done…As a Doctor, I always do my best to help others heal. That's why I ran for Senate. I hope we begin the healing process as a nation soon” (Dimattei & Hoffman). This a big flip from Oz’s campaign communication methods, which have been largely centered around attack ads and an appeal to MAGA extremism. (Catch that last sentence? Sounds like a not so unfamiliar advertisement draft).
DeleteAlthough Oz is walking away having lost the Pennsylvania Senate race, parts of his campaign strategy were incredibly effective. Publicly shaming Fetterman into a public and nationally televised debate was his best communication strategy yet. It required minimal effort, and once Fetterman agreed to it, Oz was already ensuring a free positive campaign advertisement. He didn’t have to fight to appear the better candidate. Additionally, Oz’s financial position was a crucial benefit in the race. With a month to election day, he funneled $5.5 million of his own dollars into political advertisements (Tamari & Shukla). Pennsylvanian radio waves and television screens were inundated with Oz ads for weeks, which helped him to achieve an impressive margin against Fetterman for a first run in any political sphere. Even though his traditional advertisements were successful, Oz came up short in his social media use. On the whole of election day, his communications team only posted on Twitter a total of eight times, with most being very gentle asks for a vote (@DrOz). His online presence lacked vigor and passion, two places where Fetterman did not come up short. After the results have been tallied, it was discovered that Gen Z saved Democrats this midterm election. Knowing their record turnout now, we can see gaps in Oz’s campaign. He almost never appeals to young voters. Chapter 7 of The 2020 Presidential Campaign: A Communication Perspective states successful political campaigns have six attributes: simplifying information, they are unique from competitors, reassure voters and minimize risk, are aspirational and offer an emotional link, symbolize candidate values, and are perceived as credible (Burns & Marchese, 116). Oz did not successfully achieve, in full, any of these important factors.
Media coverage of the election was quite thorough. As an executive board member of the Quinnipiac Democrats, I spent my Tuesday evening at our Election Watch Party at which we had 3 or 4 media outlets playing live results. A google search of “midterm results” at any point over the past few days pulled up a sea of companies from national influencers to local papers all reporting on the election. For live television coverage, we used CNN and ABC. For Connecticut and Pennsylvania coverage about the many district elections, CT Insider and the Philadelphia Inquirer were trusted sources. In the following days, coverage has centered around the failure of the “red wave” and how Democrats were able to maintain their standing, rather than simply reporting final polling numbers.
Val Demings put up a good fight for Florida and showed that she was a candidate for the people. Unfortunately, she was down in the polls leading up to the election and the results showed Marco Rubio winning Florida’s U.S. Senate race. Demings’ best form of communication was truly her social media. Her team posted constantly with GOTV strategies that attempted to lead people to the polls. She advertised online all the events she was doing with her surrogates such as Charlie Crist. She also had celebrities like Mark Hamill make a video about why the people of Florida should vote for Demings. She took a turn on her Twitter and did not make statements about why Rubio is wrong, but she made statements about herself and how she is going to turn Florida around. For example, she said, “I'm fighting to bring down costs so that hardworking Americans can provide for their families and experience a quality life. When our families thrive, so does our nation.” (Demings, Twitter).
ReplyDeleteThe book The 2020 Presidential Campaign: A Communication Perspective says it best, “The number of advertisements aired, the pervasiveness of advertising in competitive races, and the record amount of advertising expenditures suggest that advertising continues to play a central role in campaigns.” (Tedesco & Dunn, 58). Even though this was Demings’ central role in her campaign, it did not help her defeat Rubio. Her least effective strategy was found on her YouTube channel, or should I say, lack thereof. She did not use that platform to its fullest extent and her potential voters could not find her video advertisements on her channel since they were unlisted. It could have helped people understand her issues more if they were on there.
A lot of major news channels were covering Election Day. I checked online around 2 pm for coverage and most sites said the results would not be posted until 7 pm. It wasn’t until I got a Twitter notification from ABC News that I found out Rubio won. The media was very quick with the results as soon as they came out. That night, Demings was fast to give a speech about her loss, being very humble and understanding. NBC News said, “Demings, once considered a potential running mate for President Joe Biden in 2020, acknowledged her loss in a concession speech, telling supporters she had spoken with Rubio and congratulated him on his victory. She also made a point, however, to tell Florida Democrats not to give up.” (Caputo, NBC News). The media did a great job keeping up with the election as they were putting out the information as soon as they were given it.
Based on what people are posting on social media, people seem happy about the election. On Demings’ social media platforms, there is a mix of comments being upset saying, “Thank you for everything you gave this election. You gave a lot of us hope and light.” (@lilllybud on Instagram) and others saying, “Hold this L💁♂️” (@chefwill2002 on Instagram). A lot of people online talked positively about this “blue wave” that came over America and how young voters of Gen Z caused this. One Tweet from a March For Our Lives founder, David Hogg, stated, “Gen Z voters just saved Democrats ass. Don’t forget it.” (Hogg, Twitter). This Tweet went viral with over 100K likes. There are going to be disagreements from the election, but from what my algorithm has been showing me, people are happy over the democratic wins.
References:
DeleteCaputo, Marc. “Sen. Marco Rubio Wins Re-Election in Florida, Defeating Democratic Rep. Val Demings, NBC News Projects.” NBCNews.com, NBCUniversal News Group, https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2022-election/florida-sen-marco-rubio-wins-re-election-defeating-democratic-rep-val-rcna54937.
Demings, Rep. Val. “I'm Fighting to Bring down Costs so That Hardworking Americans Can Provide for Their Families and Experience a Quality Life. When Our Families Thrive, so Does Our Nation.” Twitter, Twitter, 3 Nov. 2022, https://twitter.com/RepValDemings/status/1588202196126121986.
Demings, Val. “Val Demings on Instagram: ‘U.S. Senator @Chrismurphyct Needs a Partner in the Senate Who Will Keep Our Children and Communities Safe – That Is Not Marco Rubio.".” Instagram, https://www.instagram.com/p/CkthcilpeNv/.
Hogg, David. “Gen Z Voters Just Saved Democrats Ass. Don't Forget It.” Twitter, Twitter, 9 Nov. 2022, https://twitter.com/davidhogg111/status/1590297133961613312.
Tedesco, John C. and Scott Dunn. “Political Advertising in the 2020 Presidential Campaign.” In The 2020 Presidential Campaign: A Communication Perspective, edited by Robert E. Denton, Rowman & Littlefield, 2021.
Jennifer Moglia
ReplyDeleteThroughout the semester, I’ve made jokes about how Herschel Walker just needed to stop talking and he’d be more likely to keep his supporters. I was shocked, but it seems as if he took some of that advice this week. His last original tweet was made on November 5th, and his last retweet was on November 6th. His campaign account was more active, mainly sending out tweets encouraging republicans to get to the polls and vote. This is a very obvious and common “Get Out The Vote” strategy, urging citizens to do their civic duty and make their voices heard (Dunklau). There were also posts encouraging last-minute donations with prizes like a signed football at stake, highlighting his football career as always. His campaign’s Instagram account had nearly identical posts, with his personal Instagram remaining inactive. Walker’s Facebook posts were also very similar, with the addition of live streaming certain events over the past few days. Utilizing Facebook live streams was an idea that we suggested in our Election Eve Project dossier, and I’m glad that Walker’s team took advantage of it - it definitely gave viewers a more intimate look at the candidate and humanized him in a way that had not been done before. There were tons of comments from supporters at different timestamps throughout the videos, showing that people were tuned in throughout the entirety of the streams.
I thought that the media coverage of the midterm election results on election night and in the following days were easy to follow along with. I’ve been watching CNN for the better part of the past two days, and although I was intimidated at first (I’ve never really kept up with election coverage this closely), I liked how easy it was to keep tabs on all of the races across the country. I liked the graphics showing who was leading each race that were always at the bottom or side of the screen no matter what was happening - it made it very easy to glance at the TV or laptop and know exactly what was going on at the moment. I also liked how precise the percentages were. A race was never “50/50,” it was “49.2% to 50.8%.” All of these things made closely following media coverage of an election easy for me despite being a first-timer.
Most of the social media reactions I’ve seen have been in support of John Fetterman, which makes sense considering most of the people I follow are left-leaning and from the northeast (including Pennsylvania). People have definitely been making jokes at Fetterman’s expense, especially about his shorts-wearing habits, but I don’t think they’re being made by people who are against him. It seems as if he is being embraced as a meme by social media, and them making fun of him is almost out of love or admiration. I’ve been searching Herschel Walker’s name on Twitter pretty frequently to check out the reactions to the fact that the Georgia election is going to a run-off, and most people are not pleased. The general consensus has been people confused that the race was as close as it was and upset at the fact that Walker got as much support as he did. There are plenty of jokes being made at Walker’s expense, including him not knowing whether he’s “the blue team or the red team” or him getting excited at the term “run-off” because it sounds like a football drill. These jokes feel more like insults toward Walker and definitely don’t feel all in good fun the way the ones toward Fetterman feel. I think that the next month or so leading up to the run-off will be full of more basic campaigning from Walker and more people on social media, in Geogia and beyond, being shocked that he has gotten as far as he has.
Cj Benedetti
ReplyDeleteMarco Rubio took the Senate seat in Flordia, as excepted. What wasn't expected his how strong his campaign and reach were. Rubio was even leading in Miami-Dade country when it was Mail-in and early voting, which Rubio showed off in one of his tweets of a news clip. Using his Public Speaking skills worked best for Senator Rubio. He did a rally with Trump in Miami on the 7th (White), and made stops in Solivita with DeSantis on the third (DeForest & Cervantes). He also stopped and spoke with the National Association of Police Organization in Broward County (Rubio) and a stop in Naples the day before that on the 2nd (Rubio). These types of events look to be smaller town hall-type events or speech events in which Rubio thrives. He also kept up his social media presence, posting often. I especially liked that on Twitter, the attack ads slowed down during the week leading up to the election. His final ad was a positive message about America and his life story in America.
The media coverage of this election, on a personal level, was unlike any midterm election I was previously seen. This coverage once again struggled with polling for predictions, from my observations. On social media, a lot of republicans and polls had a “Red Wave” incoming, but this couldn't have been more opposite of what happened. A tweet from Ben Collins, and something I agree with, said, “ Before the next election, you might want to find a better way to poll anyone under the age of 30 since they would rather pick up a pinless grenade than a call from an unknown number”. I wholeheartedly agree with this sentiment because of how the polls leaned prior to the election through what I observed. One thing to note was the race between Fetterman and Oz was largely talked about because of how big that race was and how close it was. I found the reading interesting about how long it would take for those votes to be counted. Lai said “Many if not most of the 67 counties will likely be done by the early morning hours Wednesday. Elections officials in small counties said their mail ballots won’t be a big burden.” This was spot on as I was watching ABC news at 1:10 am on Wednesday as they called the race for Fetterman. Now it may be a little earlier than expected for it to be called, but it still is the early hours of Wednesday morning. For voter reactions, I would like to note that I’ve seen most of it through Twitter, but also some articles here and there. The reaction right now is that, first off, the Red Wave did not come to fruition. Democrats were very competitive in seats, usually not close in elections, and throughout the gubernatorial races, Democrats were very successful. This looks like this could have honestly been an unmitigated disaster for the Republicans. They seemed to have been saved by New York, which is odd because NY had previously leaned so heavily blue. But Republicans look over Long Island. They flipped the district I lived in (which, quick side note could be the first race between two openly gay candidates (Kuchar)) and took the district further out east. I’ve seen Red Voters and even the media say that this midterm was super disappointing for Red voters and that the Republican Party needs to do “soul searching” (Alexrod). Otherwise, I’ve mostly seen people rejoicing over Dems flipping PA and many House seats on Twitter, even though it probably won't be enough to control the House. There has also been a huge outcry of happiness over Vermont, California, and Michigan codifying abortion rights in their constitutions.
The results of this election came at the surprise to just about every analyst. Republicans are not going to pick up nearly as many seats as they forecasted, and the democrats may very well control the senate for another two years. We may not know who controls the senate until 3 races in Arizona, Nevada, and, once again, Georgia. As of now (11:45pm on Wednesday), the races in Arizona and Nevada are too close to call, and the race in Georgia is heading to a runoff. Both sides in the Georgia race probably see this as a good thing, but I see this as an overall positive for the Warnock team, but a good opportunity to shock the country on the Walker team.
ReplyDeleteTwo years ago, when Sen. Warnock was first elected, the nation’s eyes were focused on the Georgia senate races. This directed a record amount of money into Georgia, with over $300,000,000 in outside money being spent on the two runoff elections (OpenSecrets). This will likely translate into similar amounts of money filed into Georgia for the runoff this year. Herschel walker’s team, and other republican groups have already announced anti Warnock ads, according to sources which was reported on CNN earlier this evening.
Walker’s communication strategy has been all over the place thought the election, and I can’t help but think what mostly propelled him to the spot he is now is his name and his Trump endorsement. He did not have a good communications strategy throughout this entire campaign, and we will find out in 3.5 weeks whether or not that will come back to haunt him.
In terms of media coverage of the night, I think it was very strong throughout the night. I am very partial to CNN and spent most of my night watching their wall-to-wall coverage, as well as following my local reporters, and their updates from back home in Colorado. CNN’s election team is arguably the strongest across cable news. Though they are known for their talking heads at primetime, when it comes to the election, they stay very partial. Most of the hours were spent at the magic wall with John King, where it he keeps his reporting objective and simply based off the information that is available to them. There was lots of speculation on social media about different issues in specific counties like Maricopa Co. in Arizona, and Luzerne Co. where a judge approved an order to keep polls open until 10pm (The Hill). Most outlets did a good job of reassuring viewers that things happen sometimes, and this is not an abnormal phenomenon. This was not a sign of cheating, but rather a sign of integrity.
Voter’s reactions have been pretty par for the course. They are discounting the incorrect polls again and continuing to support their candidates. The one thing that has surprised me was how little stolen-election talk there has been. I expected there to be much more talk from conservative pundits and candidates about their losses. From candidates like Dr. Oz for PA senate, Lauren Boebert (CO-03), and Heidi Ganahl for CO governor who are all currently losing or have lost, there has been nearly radio silence from each of them. It is also important to note that these are all Trump supporters, and floated his election lies. I would have expected them to all to be chirping at democrats and election officials about their races, but I have been pleasantly surprised.
DeleteTrump’s candidate’s performances across the board were disappointing. Tom LoBianco of Yahoo News talked about how “cracks in the coalition [Trump’s] that helped carry him to the White House in 2016 have been showing ever since the attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and Trump's lightly attended departure from Washington” ((LoBianco). His influence may not be as strong anymore, but the 2024 primaries will show the validity of that claim.
A 501tax-exempt, et al. “Georgia Senate Races Shatter Spending Records.” OpenSecrets News, 4 Jan. 2021, https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2021/01/georgia-senate-races-shatter-records/.
Judge Extends Voting Hours in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, after Paper Shortage | The Hill. https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/3725562-judge-extends-voting-hours-in-luzerne-county-pennsylvania-after-paper-shortage/. Accessed 10 Nov. 2022.
Trump Is Considered the GOP Frontrunner in 2024. Will Conservatives Support Him? https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-is-considered-the-gop-frontrunner-in-2024-will-conservatives-support-him-090039560.html?guccounter=1. Accessed 10 Nov. 2022.
John Fetterman’s victorious senate campaign should become a model for campaign communication in future cycles. Despite a stroke that nearly killed him and an unpopular incumbent Democratic President, his campaign was able to beat Dr. Oz and pick up a crucial seat for Democrats. Fetterman’s social media was particularly extraordinary. As noted by Michael Turk, “maximizing the effectiveness in online messaging can mean the difference in election outcomes,” (Turk, 49). This is exactly what happened in this senate election. Comparing Oz and Fetterman’s social media strategies is night and day. Oz’s is very standard and boring while Fetterman’s is in touch with internet culture and lively. Fetterman in the closing days of the election emphasized GOTV, which must have made a difference in turnout. Fetterman’s overall GOTV was impressive as well. According to The Washington Post, Fetterman significantly ran ahead of Biden in rural counties. This evaporated Oz’s path to victory. Fetterman’s appeal was his ability to reach out to those voters, and his GOTV operation was able to turn that into smaller margins and a US Senate seat.
ReplyDeleteThough pundits predicted a disaster for Democrats in the days prior, as things started to show that was not the case media coverage shifted. Throughout the night I watched NBC, MSNBC, and CNN’s election night coverages. This was reflected in each broadcast as well as clips from other networks and pundits on social media. The media coverage painted this as a major win for Democrats and perhaps the beginning of an attempt by establishment Republicans to end the Trump era. The former is undeniable. On MSNBC’s midday broadcast yesterday, Dave Wasserman said going into the night it was possible Democrats could lose 30+ seats in the House. That chamber remains in play. That is an undeniable win. As for the defeat of many Trump endorsee’s signaling the end of the Trump era, that is in my view wishful thinking on the media’s part. As long as the base wants MAGA candidates than the party will remain Trump’s. Overall the media coverage was positive towards the Democratic Party and posed questions that the Republicans will have to reckon with.
Overall, Democratic voters have abandoned the ‘sky is falling mentality they have held since the 2016 election. The Fetterman win, coupled with better-than-expected results across the board have given Democratic voters a reason to not set their hair on fire as they normally would. Republicans on social media, generally, have been playing the blame game more than they have been claiming fraud. While there are some claims of this election being stolen, the vast majority that I have seen are angrier about turnout, strategy, candidate quality, intraparty fighting, and McConnell/McCarthy than about the election being stolen. Point for democracy.
Works Cited
Delete“Katy Tur Reports.” Performance by Katy Tur, MSNBC, 9 Nov. 2022. Ed
Ledur, Julia, et al. “Fetterman Bested Biden across Pennsylvania to Flip a U.S. Senate Seat.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 9 Nov. 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/11/09/fetterman-rural/.
Turk, Michael. "Survey Research and Campaigns: Challenges and Opportunities." Campaigns on the Cutting Edge, 4th ed., edited by Richard J. Semiatin, CQ Press, 2020.
So as you probably know, the race that I have been following the closest this semester is not finished just yet. The senate race in Georgia between Republican Herschel Walker and Democrat Raphael Warnock is headed to a runoff after neither of them were able to achieve the 50% of the vote required to certify a victory. Before I go in depth with the topic of the blog, I feel that it is necessary to recognize the Liberatarian candidate in this race, Chase Oliver, who was able to secure 2.07% of the vote. If it were not for the votes that went to his side, this race may have been decided Wednesday morning. Instead, Georgia voters get another month of watching these two candidates drive the same talking points about the other down everyone’s throats. Even an Associated Press article about the runoff made that the point of the piece, saying things like, “It will mean another month of Warnock hammering Walker, who is making his first bid for public office, as unqualified and Walker assailing Warnock as a rubber-stamp for the White House” (Barrow).
ReplyDeleteFrankly, I am surprised that Walker made it this far. When looking at his social media like Twitter, the last time he posted was on Nov. 6, two days before the election. On his YouTube, he didn’t post any new advertisements after Nov. 4, so I’m confused as to how he may have reached out to voters on a broader scale before Election Day. However, whatever he did worked, because Walker seemed to dominate the polls day of. I remember watching CNN’s coverage of the election, and they said that while both candidates were fairly even at that point, almost all of Warnock’s votes were from early voting, and almost all of Walker’s votes were done in-person that day. Georgia was a very prominent state for early voting as well, with the turnout even exceeding what the state saw in the 2020 presidential election (Williams).
When looking at the media outlets’s coverage of the election, I was impressed by how thorough and timely they all were. I didn’t watch too much of it on television, but I was receiving updates on Instagram and Twitter from outlets like The New York Times, NBC News, and Fox News. I remember being confused as to how they all knew when to post about when a race was called, but then Jack Spiegel explained to me how they all have representatives in one designated area and they all decide when to call a race together. I thought that was absolutely fascinating when he told me. I figured they would all call races at different times. Throughout the coverage, I began to learn more about other races that we did not discuss in class. The one that stood out to me the most was the governor's race in Massachusetts, where Maura Healey became the United States’ first-ever lesbian governor. I was also happy to learn about Maxwell Frost being the first member of Generation Z to be elected to Congress, especially considering he won in the conservative state of Florida as a progressive (Liu).
The most entertaining component of the election process was watching the reactions on social media. If a conservative won, all of the comments on a New York Times post would be miserable, while the comments on a Fox News post would be euphoric with joy. The best part is that the opposite was true when a liberal won their election. You can definitely tell by a news outlet’s comment section on Instagram which political party they primarily cover and believe in. The most interesting comment sections came on posts that broke the news of the Walker-Warnock race heading to a runoff. All of the comments on Fox News were very upbeat and optimistic, with a few discussing the potential of libertarian votes turning into votes for Walker during the runoff. On the other side, comments on the post from the New York times were berating Republicans for even considering voting for Walker. I am very excited to see how the rest of this election plays out in a month, as I am certain that it will have the explosive outcome we’re expecting from it.
DeleteWorks Cited
Barrow, Bill. “Raphael Warnock, Herschel Walker Advance to Runoff Election for Georgia Senate Seat.” PBS, Public Broadcasting Service, 9 Nov. 2022, https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/raphael-warnock-herschel-walker-advance-to-runoff-election-for-georgia-senate-seat.
Liu, Jennifer. “25-Year-Old Maxwell Frost Will Be the First Gen Z Member of Congress.” CNBC, CNBC, 9 Nov. 2022, https://www.cnbc.com/2022/11/09/maxwell-frost-will-be-the-first-gen-z-member-of-congress.html.
Williams, Dave. “Record-Setting Midterms Early Voting Even Exceeding Presidential Early Voting.” Georgia Public Broadcasting, PBS, 19 Oct. 2022, https://www.gpb.org/news/2022/10/19/record-setting-midterms-early-voting-even-exceeding-presidential-early-voting.
I think that Val Deming’s fundraising efforts and social media presence were effective, but her efforts to craft an image for herself apart from Marco Rubio’s insults and attack ads fell short. Burns and Marchese (2021) identify the components of the “brand” needed to “sell” a politician: “creativity, a clear purpose, possessing emotional appeal, and the ability to target messaging to key demographics” (pp. 116.) While Demings attempted to use social media, advertising and speeches to target the female, Black and young votes, it’s clear that she failed to construct an independent image. This can be seen especially in the TV ads that Rubio ran, which present Demings as too extreme for Florida and show her fellow police officers as not supporting her (Fineout, 2022.) Rubio’s insistence on Demings being just like every Democrat who votes according to Rep. Nancy Pelosi’s plan definitely hurt Demings’ campaign and she couldn’t quite break free from that image and present herself as a centrist (Fineout, 2022, para. 7-8.)
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, I think Demings’ social media efforts were valuable for attempting to get out the younger vote. Demings used TikTok trends, posting videos with captions like “dancing my way to a U.S. Senate seat” and hashtags like #RetireRubio (Val Demings on Instagram, 2022.) This might be part of the reason why the University of North Florida poll from October 26 said that Demings was ahead for younger voters and only 15% of 18-24 year olds said they would vote for Rubio (October 26, 2022 - Florida Statewide Poll, 2022.) However, according to FiveThirtyEight, younger Americans tend to vote less than older Americans, so it is possible that this demographic just didn’t show up for Demings as much as the campaign had hoped (Thomson-DeVeaux, Amelia, 2020.)
In addition, Demings outraised Rubio by about $20 million, likely due to her social media presence and use of fundraising text messages and emails. However, as of October 18, Rubio was also bringing in more money from Super PACs than Demings (Wall, 2022.) Though Demings raised a lot of money as a Democratic hopeful, Rubio’s stance as an incumbent definitely damaged her chances.
When it comes to the media coverage of the Florida senate election, outlets like the New York times did a good job using interactive election maps to cover the results. One of the most interesting districts to follow was Miami-Dade, which voted in favor of Rubio by nine points, despite Demings efforts to target Hispanic voters (“Florida U.S. Senate Election Results.”) Rubio is Cuban, and Cuban voters tend to go Republican more than any other Hispanic demographic, so Demings’ failure to get the Hispanic vote was definitely felt in her Senatorial loss (Krogstad, 2020.)
On social media, I mostly noticed voter’s reactions to the Fetterman-Oz and Walker-Warnock results. For example, Herschel Walker is currently trending on Twitter because of the upcoming runoff election. The tag is mostly people making fun of Walker’s personality and slip ups. I’ve also seen a lot of celebrations of Fetterman’s win. One popular tweet said “Fetterman is the first Democrat in a long time to run on ‘Fuck this guy’ right off the bat instead of ‘my opponent is a good guy I disagree with’ and Dems need to embrace that wholeheartedly” (Allen Ivermectin, 2022.) Despite Demings’ failure to win as the candidate of change, it’s clear that Democrats in Pennsylvania backed the argumentative candidate.
When looking at the past election, I think my candidate Marco Rubio did a very good job with mapping out successful strategies for this year's midterm election. Senator Rubio was focused on four very important points being Florida first, the economy/ inflation, education, and safety. I think it was because he focused on these key points he was able to secure his third term. He was very effective in communicating what issues he would be focusing on and what he would do to make them better. According to a blackboard article by ap news it was said that “ About half of voters say inflation factored significantly in their vote, as groceries, gasoline, housing, food and other costs have shot up in the past year and raised the specter of inflation. The economy was an overarching concern for voters, about 8 in 10 of whom say it was in bad shape. A slim majority of voters say Biden’s policies caused inflation to be near 40-year highs, while just under half are blaming factors beyond his control, such as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.”( Boak, Fingerhut) Senator Rubio knowing these concerns he was able to dominate in the polls. He also did not rely on attack ads against Val Demings but rather focused his ads on his accomplishments. One major strategy he was able to employ was focusing on safety. Although the Rubio campaign was anti gun control, Politico states that “ Rubio’s campaign, however, successfully outmaneuvered Demings by lining up significant law enforcement support across the state — including cutting hard-hitting ads that included local sheriffs questioning her support for police.” (Fineout) So he was still able to get support from people who felt the need for safer streets. Deming’s being a former police chief still did not receive the upper hand due to the lack of support she was receiving from her fellow colleagues. While watching Fox News coverage they claimed that the biggest downfall of democrats was focusing too heavily on attack ads claiming if republicans win the country will be ruined. Instead, democrats should have been focused on emphasizing what they were going to do to solve major issues. Although senator Rubio did not have many attack ads according to Politico “Rubio’s campaign hammered her endlessly as being in lockstep with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Biden contended that she was too radical for voters in a state that has been growing increasingly Republican.” ( Fineout) Having Donald Trump campaign for Rubio in Miami two days before the election I feel was very effective. This gave republicans that final push that some needed to go out to the polls and vote. I think some of Senator Rubio’s campaign strategies that were not effective were he never gave a final push effort for the POC in Florida. I think we all assumed it was a lost cause but still, he might have been surprised with who voted for him if he had done so.
ReplyDeleteThe media coverage of the midterm election was very broad. Almost every television channel was live reporting on the election as states closed and social media was very busy. Senator Rubio’s social media stayed fairly quiet until his win was announced. He was before the end of polling encouraging people to “ get out the vote.” While watching Fox News the anchor called the state of Florida “ Rubio Red” after this whopping victory. While watching NBC even after Rubio’s win was announced they were still discussing how Val Demings may be able to pull it off and win. I found their broadcasting a bit confusing. The Georgia race was talked about heavily up until the next day. With the race ending in a runoff and neither candidate looking to concede. The House and Senate charts were brought up frequently to see which party is going to have control. While switching through different news platforms it was interesting to hear the positives and negatives from the election, especially the next day. Most new’s sites affiliated with a party seemed to shed light only on the candidate that they wanted to win and talked and talked down about the states that they didn’t win. It was very compelling to see voters' reactions the next day and so on for the midterm elections. According to the New York Times there were five big takeaways from the elections “ No major red wave, Abortion put democrats in the fight, Trump saddled weak republican candidates, inflation dominated, and the country is closely divided as ever.” (Schulten) It's true that we did not see a sweeping red wave as expected. I think not only republicans but democrats were surprised by this, as I was. I think the issue of abortion was a problem that was having democrats show up to the polls in large numbers. I also think that inflation was the issue that was having republicans show up in large numbers as well. I have seen very mixed reviews about Trump helping weaker candidates or helping in general. I really think there is a large portion of the country who will always hate him and want to see him out of politics. I don’t think he will be leaving in fact, I think on Tuesday he will announce his race for 2024. The hate for Trump on social media is very evident. I think the reason there is so much hate is because those who do like Trump would receive hate themselves for posting anything. Overall this election cycle has been iconic in many ways. We saw people show up and out for their country. It's very apparent in the polls that Joe Biden is not widely liked and according to a Fox news poll “ 70% of the country says the U.S is headed in the wrong direction.” ( Meyers, Vargas) Knowing this information it will be interesting to begin to see who will run in 2024 and what the future of the U.S looks like.
DeleteWork Cited:
Boak, Josh. “VoteCast: Inflation Top Concern, but Democracy a Worry Too.” AP NEWS, Associated Press, 9 Nov. 2022, https://apnews.com/article/2022-midterm-elections-abortion-biden-inflation-cf4dffe87a7c2fd1bdd58df0346e15dc.
Fineout. “Rubio Beats Demings to Secure a 3rd Term in the Senate.” POLITICO, https://www.politico.com/news/2022/11/08/marco-rubio-val-demings-florida-senate-race-results-2022-00064775.
Myers, Megan, and Ramiro Vargas. “Americans Respond: Is the US Headed in the Right Direction?” Fox News, FOX News Network, 10 Oct. 2022, https://www.foxnews.com/us/americans-respond-is-us-headed-in-right-direction.
Schulten, Katherine. “What Are Your Reactions to the Results of the Midterm Elections?” The New York Times, The New York Times, 9 Nov. 2022, https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/09/learning/what-are-your-reactions-to-the-results-of-the-midterm-elections.html.
Piascik Election Recap Blog
ReplyDeleteThe forms of campaign communication that were most effective for Raphael Warnock were his advertising and fundraising strategies. According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, “Warnock collects more than $26M in latest fundraising period” (Bluestein). His advertisements over various platforms allowed him to garner significant support and attention amongst the public eyes. I believe that his social media strategies could have been focused on a bit more during his campaign which would have provided him access to the younger demographic which are known to turn out to the polls in significant numbers. I believe that this not being a primary focus may contribute to the closeness of the race between Raphael Warnock and Herschel Walker.
I believe that the media coverage of the Georgia Senate race significantly contributed to the results of the midterm election results. According to Media Coverage and the Practice of Journalism in the 2020 Presidential Campaign, “During elections, the news media, more specifically influence the political attitudes, knowledge and voting behaviors of citizens. Coverage of campaigns and elections shape not only electoral choices but also public trust in democratic norms, values and the electoral process itself” (Denton). Georgia was a state to watch during this midterm election because it is one of a few key swing states that impact the partisan balance in the Senate. The media coverage of this particular race was extensive because of this fact and that largely contributed to the voter turnout in favor of both candidates. According to the New York Times, 49.42 percent of voters voted in favor of Raphael Warnock and 48.52 percent of voters voted in favor of Herschel Walker and they both will advance to a runoff election on Dec. 6.
Finally, I don’t think that many voters are thrilled at the idea of a runoff election given reactions on social media. However, I believe that people are happy that Raphael Warnock held a larger portion of the vote than Herschel Walker but there was not as many reactions on Twitter or Instagram as I thought there would be.
Piascik Works Cited:
DeleteBluestein, Greg. "Warnock Collects More than $26M in Latest Fundraising Period." The Atlanta
Journal-Constitution, 3 Oct. 2022, www.ajc.com/politics/politics-blog/warnock-collects-more-than-26m-in-latest-fundraising-period/OE3CBGVI6VH6BASPSAHE36TCP4/.
Accessed 10 Nov. 2022.
Denton, Robert E. “Media Coverage and the Practice of Journalism in the 2020 Presidential
Campaign.” In The 2020 Presidential Campaign: A Communication Perspective, edited by Robert E. Denton, Rowman & Littlefield, 2021.
"Georgia U.S. Senate Election Results." The New York Times, The New York Times Co., 10 Nov.
2022, www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/11/08/us/elections/results-georgia-us-senate.html. Accessed 10 Nov. 2022.
For the election eve project, my candidate was Raphael Warnock. A man who I personally believe to have many strengths and few weaknesses. I think one of his strengths during his campaign would include his television ads. I believe he comes across as charming, poised, and relatable. I think an area where Warnock has room to grow would be in the social media department. Social media isn’t everyone’s forte which is okay. However, living in the post-pandemic age, politicians need to be able to adapt. The pandemic forced people to stay inside and through this many people learned that they were content with this lifestyle. Social media taught people unique and creative ways to cook, clean, make clothes, cut hair, etc. One statistic I found interesting from the (blank article) states, “In 2020, social media use was at an all-time high, with 72 percent of Americans of voting age using social media platforms and 69 percent of that demographic is on Facebook alone”. Raphael Warnock’s website and social media platforms felt a bit stale and lacked creativity. I think that this could play a part into the fact that the Georgia senate is in a run-off election. In regard to my assessment of the media coverage from election night and the following days after, the coverage was primarily focused around whether or not there would be a run-off election. One quote that I saw from AP News was captured by Warnock on Wednesday morning said, “We’re not sure if this journey is over tonight or if there’s still a little work yet to do”. It’s interesting to compare this quote to the one Walker gave when he stated, “I don’t come to lose”. I wasn’t surprised by the voter reaction to the election, specifically on Twitter. One user @PSchmalling wrote, “88% of evangelical Christians voted for Herschel Walker, not Warnock, the candidate who has devoted his adult life to Jesus Christ. Let that sink in” this tweet received 176.9K likes. Another user @JonWas_Here wrote, “Herschel Walker somewhere asking if he’s the blue or the red” which received 81K likes. I am really curious to see how this run-off election works out and what strategies both candidate’s plan to employ during this short up-coming weeks. I think that Warnock has plenty of time to harness social media to his advantage and try and acquire more votes. Although this project may be coming to an end, I am still going to keep up with Warnock and his election.
ReplyDelete
DeleteTwitter. (n.d.). Twitter. Retrieved November 10, 2022, from https://twitter.com/
Barrow, B. (2022, November 9). Warnock, Walker in tight race in Georgia; runoff possible. AP NEWS. Retrieved November 10, 2022, from https://apnews.com/article/georgia-senate-race-2022-midterm-elections-026ec248f0ec89f45b11c89a0b930c28
Hendricks, John Allen and Dan Schill, “The Social Media Campaign of 2020.” In The 2020 Presidential Campaign: A Communication Perspective, edited by Robert E. Denton, Rowman & Littlefield, 2021.
Since the beginning of his campaign, Dr. Mehmet Oz has been running an attack campaign, leaping at the chance to attack his opponent John Fetterman on everything from his severe stroke in May and his family’s financial support to his Twitter presence and relationships with Democratic figures (Otterbein and Allison). That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but it was really overdone, especially when the candidate could have kept himself clean and let surrogates do his dirty work (such as Sean Hannity, the Fox News host who endorsed his campaign). Interestingly, the Oz campaign did the exact opposite of what I had proposed in my social media brief — they went entirely positive on Twitter. Over the last few days, Oz’s Twitter account has been entirely focused on Get Out the Vote efforts (“Tomorrow is Election Day”) and pushing endorsements (“Thank you for your support”). To his team’s credit, a tweet showing him and his wife voting got over 20,000 likes, (“Lisa and I”), but Twitter overwhelmingly favors negative content; for example, a baseline attack on Fetterman last week got 11,000 likes easily (“President Biden and John Fetterman”).
ReplyDeleteThe media coverage of Oz has been overwhelmingly negative, except perhaps some Fox News coverage and reports from right-wing outlets such as The Daily Wire or The Daily Caller. The left-leaning publication Slate came out with “The Total Humiliation of Dr. Oz...” on Wednesday, which rips into Oz’s strategies and public persona (Stahl). Many mainstream outlets have been focusing more on Fetterman’s win and what it means for the U.S. Senate, with Oz being the focus of three brands of stories. The first is in a wider-picture lens of the midterms, such as The Atlantic’s “How Abortion Defined the 2022 Midterms,” (Hendrickso) which puts his defeat in a larger electoral context. The second has been focused on Oz’s concession speech and the fact that he actually did concede, which is something of a surprise these days. But, the majority of the coverage has been focused on former President Donald Trump’s alleged meltdown after Oz lost, which was first reported by the New York Times's Maggie Haberman on Twitter and later corroborated. Notably, Trump is blaming his wife and Sean Hannity for convincing him to support Oz, and since Trump is involved...of course it’s driving the media coverage (Ankel).
Lastly, I’d like to point out some interesting reactions I’ve seen on social media to Fetterman’s and Oz’s performances. Sawyer Hackett, a progressive activist, posted a really interesting NBC exit poll; the question was “Has Dr. Oz lived in PA long enough to represent it effectively?” (“NBC Pennsylvania Exit Poll”). The result: 56% of voters polled said no, Dr. Oz is a carpetbagger — which has always been a core issue with his electoral candidacy. It might just be my feeds, but the majority of the reactions on social media that I’ve seen have been memes mocking Oz, people praising the Fetterman communications team and coverage of ballot-intake at various Pennsylvanian counties.
Charlie Windels Part 1
ReplyDeleteAfter seeing the results of Florida's senate race I was slightly surprised. An article I was reading from NBC news quotes Rubio “boasting nearly 4.4 million votes, or 58%, while Demings had slightly more than 3.1 million, or 41%” (Caputo). I did really expect this race to be a lot closer, however, as I looked into Rubio's campaign strategies I noticed there were a lot of effective techniques he used. A few areas in which Rubio thrived were stump campaigning and advertising. Throughout his campaign, he stuck to what he was good at, and in his stump speeches, he was extremely effective. In addition, his advertisements were very different from Demings' as they were more focused on what he has done and his accomplishments rather than what Val Demings is going to do. A previous class article, I chose to revisit talks about the effectiveness of a particular Marco Rubio ad. The article quotes “The full ad focuses on the Senator’s effectiveness in his first two terms. His campaign noted the Center for Effective Lawmaking has consistently listed Rubio as the most effective Republican Senator. The release of this ad comes after Rubio booked more than $1.3 million in ad time for the first week of the General Election cycle” (Ogles). Overall this shows Rubio’s consistency in his advertising and how much time and effort he put into making solid ads. This most likely attracted voters who may have still been undecided or not motivated to get out and vote.
Charlie Windels Part 2
ReplyDeleteAs for the media coverage, I would say there are so many big talking points in other states. For Florida, because Rubio won by a large margin and is going to be serving his 3rd term there is not an extreme amount of attention from the media. However, I was curious to look at other states. “In Georgia between Warnock and Walker, the vote was so close that there will be a runoff election on December 6th” (Phippen). This is a massive talking point within the media and it will be interesting to see what happens. December 6th is a few weeks away and I can only assume that there will be drama and lots to talk about in that regard. In addition, John Fetterman won the senate race in Pennsylvania. I think this will also be a massive talking point and a huge story considering Fetterman's health challenges and what he had to do to rise above Dr. Oz. In addition, the article I was reading quotes “The Senate race was among the most important battles in the country for the midterm cycle, with Pennsylvania being one of a handful of states that will determine control over the Senate” (Phippen). As of right now, I think these stories within the media are just beginning, and over the next month, we should see a rise in media coverage and activity.
As far as voter reactions are concerned, big names such as Donald Trump are already expressing themselves on social media. Because of Trump's large following, I am sure that there are many voters that agree. An article I found on CNN quotes “Former President Donald Trump posted on social media on Tuesday to cast doubt on the legitimacy of the midterm election in the critical swing state of Pennsylvania” (Dale). I think this could stir up a lot of controversies and will be talked about a lot in the media. Overall I think this election was extremely hectic and there is so much to talk about. Even for Florida, the election was predicted to be much closer, but the results showed otherwise.
Works Cited
Positive Marco Rubio Ad Spotlights Ways Incumbent ‘Gets Stuff Done’
Jacob Ogles Florida Politics August 25, 2022 https://floridapolitics.com/archives/551647-positive-marco-rubio-ad-spotlights-ways-incumbent-gets-stuff-done/
Phippen, Thomas. “Georgia Senate Race Heads to Runoff, Dow Slips, and History Has Been Made in Some American States.” Fox News, FOX News Network, 10 Nov. 2022, https://www.foxnews.com/live-news/2022-midterm-elections-voting-results-predictions-candidates-updates.
Dale, Daniel. “Trump and Other Republicans Are Already Casting Doubt on Midterm Results | CNN Politics.” CNN, Cable News Network, 7 Nov. 2022, https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/06/politics/trump-midterms-casting-doubt-pennsylvania/index.html.
By Mason Glod
ReplyDeleteLate Tuesday night, it was confirmed that John Fetterman defeated Mehmet Oz in the 2022 Pennsylvania Senate election. Candidly, I was extremely surprised. Leading up to the election, polling knowledge and general opinion seemed to point to Oz stealing the victory, but Fetterman still won. All in all, Fetterman's victory reveals the ultimate strength of his messaging and image creation.
Fetterman's win can seriously be credited to the image he carefully developed throughout his campaign. Because of this, Fetterman's most effective messaging style was his image-building messaging, specifically on social media. Fetterman's image of a working-class, one-with-the-people candidate certainly resulted in a positive and effective campaign strategy; TIME magazine literally describes this stating "Fetterman won on vibes," (Alter, 2022). Fetterman developed such a clear, positive image during the campaign that it carried him to victory. In fact, Fetterman did not even have to talk policy to convey his mood because of his brand. Authors Lisa Burns and Courtney Marchese explain this saying "Political brands offer a 'short cut' to what a candidate is about through a combination of visual imagery and pithy messaging, helping voters to distinguish between political entities," (2021, p. 116). Fetterman's strong brand essentially did the work for him, telling the public exactly what he was about from the start.
While Fetterman created a strong image for himself throughout the campaign, he also effectively defined Oz's image from the start. Fetterman did this using his most effective communication method: social media. From the start, Fetterman used TikTok, Twitter, and other social sites to define Fetterman as a slimy, rich, businessman from New Jersey who is obsessed with Donald Trump. Author Jeremey Stahl describes Oz's image saying "Oz proved to be more of a piteous MAGA villain than a frightening one," (2022). Using social media throughout his campaign, Fetterman did describe why voters should vote for him, but more effectively described why voters should not vote for Oz. This strategy mirrors Biden's strategy against Trump in 2020.
The media coverage of the night was certainly large and pervasive. All major media outlets covered the event and social media chatter (at least in my Twitter bubble) was solely centered on the election. Many analysis articles following the results centered on the failed "red tsunami" and an abstract look at the country as a whole. Overall, the coverage seemed fairly unbiased with simple quantitative results from the election. However, there were certainly some articles with a biased tint, often against Oz; for instance, Slate Magazine's headline for the election results is "The Total Humiliation of Dr Oz - and Trump - in Pennsylvania: Why John Fetterman's Win is so Satisfying" (2022). However, some biased articles are inevitable.
Overall, reactions to the election seemed mixed, with lots of surprises. As stated, much of the conversation surrounded the failure of the "red tsunami" across the country, with the consensus being that it was a good night for democrats, a bad night for Trump, and a good night for Ron DeSantis and Florida republicans. Fetterman's win certainly seemed to surprise some, and the lack of prompt results especially in states like Georgia led to frustration. However, as stated, in general conversation remained on the abstract level looking at the country as a whole.
Work Cited:
Alter, C. (2022). How John Fetterman Beat Dr. Oz in Pennsylvania, Time Magazine
Stahl, J. (2022). The Total Humiliation of Dr. Oz - and Trump - in Pennsylvania, Slate Magazine
Burns, L. & Marchese, C. (2021). Political Branding in a Digital Age: The Role of Design and Image-Based Messaging Strategies in the 2020 Presidential Election. In Denton, Rowan & Littlefield (Ed.), The 2020 Presidential Campaign: A Communication Perspective, (pp. 115-134).
William Dean
ReplyDeleteNovember 8th proved to be a successful night for the Rubio campaign. The latest election tallies put Rubio’s lead at roughly 1.25 million votes, some 16.5% of the electorate greater than opponent Val Demings per NY Times estimates (“Florida Election Results”). The so-called “red wave” failed to crest over the rest of the country, but hit hard in Florida, which saw historic gains for Republicans. As of 3:41 EST on November 10th, Ron DeSantis maintained control of the governorship by 1.5 million votes, almost 20% of the electorate (“Florida Election Results”).
As the Rubio team has ceaselessly noted, Marco does not have a prominent social media presence. In the final 72 hours Rubio barely posted, with only nine original tweets and one retweet. The numbers don’t lie, with his November 7th post thanking Trump for his rally raking in more than 4,000 likes and 500 retweets (Marco Rubio [@marcorubio]). Most other posts failed to break into four digit like counts and garnered less than 250 retweets.
AP News called Florida’s governor race just three minutes after polls closed and senate race called 14 minutes later. In combination with the cycles dating back to 2016, I feel that Florida has officially bucked the trend of being state that will take late into the night to call. For all the chaos that the 2000 Presidential election caused, it can be officially left in the past. Most talking heads seem to agree, placing Florida in the lean republican category. Rubio’s nearly 9-point lead heading into election day proved to be accurate and apparent in early counts, leading channels to not discuss Rubio much.
Polls closed in the Pennsylvania Senate race around the same time, and given that Florida was a foregone conclusion, Oz v. Fetterman quickly ate up much of the TV time. The media coverage appeared fair, though I have to admit that I was stuck with NBC’s and ABC’s YouTube stream as I don’t have cable. CNN, Fox and MSNBC could have let their biases seep into reporting, but the legacy media did not present any bias that I saw.
As the night dragged on and most results seemed to be apparent around 11 o’clock, the time came to analyze what just happened. As a Republican friend of mine put it, “Florida doing really well. Rest of the country, not so much.” The forecasted red wave failed to crash over the country, instead hammering only Florida. Where the Republicans were once forecasted to win about 230-235 seats, they are now expected to win the House by single-digit margins. Many blame Trump for this, with the NY Post featuring the former President as Humpty Dumpty on today’s front page (“November 10, 2022”). Rubio and DeSantis’ more tempered promotion of America First policies, and in an election where Trumpism was on the ballot, the results are telling.
“Florida Election Results.” The New York Times, 8 Nov. 2022. NYTimes.com, https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/11/08/us/elections/results-florida.html.
Marco Rubio [@marcorubio]. “Thank You President Trump for Coming to Miami to Rally a #RedWave on Tuesday Here in #Florida Https://T.Co/GP44u0dlwM.” Twitter, 7 Nov. 2022, https://twitter.com/marcorubio/status/1589579585322381313.
“November 10, 2022.” New York Post, 10 Nov. 2022, https://nypost.com/cover/november-10-2022/.
forgot to ad this section at the end:
DeleteBeing out of office certainly didn’t help the Trump candidates, and Rubio’s incumbent-style definitely helped. He was able to run on accomplishments, touting the PPP and PACT Act, “which expanded coverage for military members exposed to burn pits” (Ogles). These may have helped the Rubio campaign get out the vote, win record-level Latino votes and flip Miami-Dade for Republicans for the first time in years.
Ogles, Jacob. “Positive Marco Rubio Ad Spotlights Ways Incumbent ‘Gets Stuff Done.’” Florida Politics - Campaigns & Elections. Lobbying & Government., 25 Aug. 2022, https://floridapolitics.com/archives/551647-positive-marco-rubio-ad-spotlights-ways-incumbent-gets-stuff-done/.
Bella Baird
ReplyDeleteVal Demings worked hard and long on her campaign and it was a good attempt at winning the race. Unfortunately her opponent, Marco Rubio, beat her in the long run. I think Demings did a great job at marketing her social media such as her Tiktoks and Instagram posts. Demings needed to post more and show the community what she was planning to do for Florida. Her main strategy was firing at Marco Rubio and sharing her story on how she grew up becoming the woman she is today. In “The Val Demings Gamble” the race was defined as a “a long shot for the 65- year-old former Orlando police chief; to win she’ll need to make what seems impossible possible in a state where the voter rolls have flipped from a more-than-100,000-voter Democratic advantage in 2020 to a Republican lead of nearly the same size in less than two years” (Harris). It was definitely a long shot when the polls were coming in. As I continuously checked them throughout the day, Demings seemed to be behind by at least 10% consistently. Demings had many areas where she could have improved her campaign. She lacked showing what kind of movements she was planning to implement and how she was going to make Florida better. On her website it was highlighted to donate and buy tickets to a private event. Her opponent’s website showed many long lengthy passages of what he has done and what he is planning to continue to do. This was the introduction to a NY Times article, “He portrayed her in his campaign as too liberal; she highlighted her law enforcement credentials” (The New York Times). This is a small summary of exactly how the campaigning went: Rubio defined Demings as being too liberal while Demings went around showing her badge to everyone. There were certainly areas that needed improvement on both ends, but I am not sure how much further that would have carried Demings. Most of the Florida community expected Rubio to win, no matter his attendance rate. Viewing the Florida maps there were only three areas that were voting for Demings. As the Deming’s election eve team it is almost sad that the articles are being headlined, “What was once thought to be a tough race for Rubio looked anything but” (Wilson). Throughout the race it had seemed it was going to be a close call for Demings and Rubio, but nearing the end Rubio had sky rocketed. I do think most Florida voters anticipated Rubio’s win over Demings.
“Florida U.S. Senate Election Results.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 8 Nov. 2022, https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/11/08/us/elections/results-florida-us-senate.html.
DeleteWilson, Kirby. “Rubio Wins Big against Democrat Val Demings to Stay in U.S. Senate for Florida.” Tampa Bay Times, Tampa Bay Times, 9 Nov. 2022, https://www.tampabay.com/news/florida-politics/elections/2022/11/08/demings-rubio-florida-senate-election-politics-republican-democrat/.
Harris, Adam. “The Val Demings Gamble.” The Atlantic, Atlantic Media Company, 12 Sept. 2022, https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2022/09/val-demings-midterms-2022-democratic-party/671327/.