Explaining Trump’s Support: What We Saw and Heard At His Campaign Rallies
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Matthew J. Dickinson
Abstract
More than a year after his surprise victory, scholars continue to debate why Donald Trump won the 2016 presidential election. Two explanations – economic anxiety and racial resentment – are commonly cited. Drawing on open-ended interviews with Trump supporters and observations at multiple Trump campaign rallies, we find that both explanations, as commonly presented, do not fully capture the dynamics underlying Trump’s support. Rather than racial animosity or concern over their personal economic status, we believe that Trump’s supporters were primarily focused on what they saw as an increasingly biased political and economic system that no longer rewarded hard work and playing by the rules.
Acknowledgments
This is a revised version of a paper presented at the 2016 Meeting of the Midwest Political Science Association. I thank Katherine Cramer and Jesse Gubb for comments on the earlier version, and Michael Lewis-Beck for suggesting I write a paper based on my campaign trips and for organizing the Midwest panel.
©2018 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Intro-summer
- Following Fenno: Learning from Senate Candidates in the Age of Social Media and Party Polarization
- Explaining Trump’s Support: What We Saw and Heard At His Campaign Rallies
- The Trump Effect: Filing Deadlines and the Decision to Run in the 2016 Congressional Elections
- What if Hillary Clinton Had Gone to Wisconsin? Presidential Campaign Visits and Vote Choice in the 2016 Election
- The Fight for American Restoration: Understanding the Paradoxical Foundations of the Trump Presidency
- Invisible Coattails: Presidential Approval and Gubernatorial Elections, 1994–2014
- When Yes Means No: GOP Congressional Strategy and the Reauthorization of the VRA in 2006
- Help or Hindrance? Outside Group Advertising Expenditures in House Races
- The Politics of Prioritization: Senators’ Attention in 140 Characters
- Book reviews
- Strategic Party Government: Why Winning Trumps Ideology
- Insecure Majorities
- Building the Bloc: Intraparty Organization in the US Congress
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Intro-summer
- Following Fenno: Learning from Senate Candidates in the Age of Social Media and Party Polarization
- Explaining Trump’s Support: What We Saw and Heard At His Campaign Rallies
- The Trump Effect: Filing Deadlines and the Decision to Run in the 2016 Congressional Elections
- What if Hillary Clinton Had Gone to Wisconsin? Presidential Campaign Visits and Vote Choice in the 2016 Election
- The Fight for American Restoration: Understanding the Paradoxical Foundations of the Trump Presidency
- Invisible Coattails: Presidential Approval and Gubernatorial Elections, 1994–2014
- When Yes Means No: GOP Congressional Strategy and the Reauthorization of the VRA in 2006
- Help or Hindrance? Outside Group Advertising Expenditures in House Races
- The Politics of Prioritization: Senators’ Attention in 140 Characters
- Book reviews
- Strategic Party Government: Why Winning Trumps Ideology
- Insecure Majorities
- Building the Bloc: Intraparty Organization in the US Congress
