What Can Political Scientists Learn from the 2016 Election Campaign of Donald Trump?
The election of Donald Trump as the 45th President of the United States in 2016 has caused numerous political scientists to question the accuracy and reliability of theories developed over the past half century or more in a number of areas, including American voter behavior, accurately measuring and predicting public opinion and the nature of successful political campaigns in the United States. In particular, many analysts argue that both the Trump campaign to secure the Republican Party nomination for the presidency, as well as his general election campaign against Democratic Party nominee Hillary Clinton, broke virtually all of the rules usually associated with a successful presidential campaign in the United States. Will Trump-style campaigning become the new normal in U.S. election campaigns in 2020 and beyond? Your analysis must contain the following elements:
A detailed description and discussion of major political science theories concerning successful election campaigns in the United States prior to the 2016 presidential election campaign
A detailed description and discussion of the major elements and tactics utilized by the Trump campaign, first in securing the Republican Party Nomination for the presidency and, then, in defeating Hillary Clinton in the general election campaign
A comparative analysis of the political science theories regarding election campaigns with the actual campaign conducted by Donald Trump in 2016. In your opinion, does the Trump campaign truly break most of the rules previously associated with successful election campaigns? If so, how and why were the conventional theories wrong? If not, how can the Trump campaign be explained as being consistent with the preexisting theories? Explain.
In your informed opinion, is Trump-style campaigning likely to become the “new normal” in U.S. presidential elections? If so, why? If not, why not? To what extent is the Trump 2020 campaign following its campaign playbook from 2016? To what extent is the Biden 2020 campaign utilizing campaign techniques pioneered by the Trump 2016 campaign?