Public Opinion and the Candidate Spouses in the 2020 Democratic Presidential Primary
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Brian Frederick
Brian Frederick serves as the Chair of the Political Science Department at Bridgewater State University. He is author of
Congressional Representation and Constituents: The Case for Increasing the House of Representatives (Routledge 2010) and coauthor (with Laurel Elder and Barbara Burrell) ofAmerican Presidential Candidate Spouses: The Public’s Perspective (Palgrave MacMillan 2018) as well as articles in a wide range of peer reviewed journals.
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Laurel Elder
Abstract
The 2020 Democratic Presidential Nomination contest featured an unusually diverse array of candidates. It also featured a historically diverse set of presidential candidate spouses including multiple men and the first openly LGBTQ+ candidate spouse. Spouses have long been among the most important surrogate for presidential candidates because the public views them as an authentic window into the candidate’s suitability for the presidency. Prior surveys of public opinion towards presidential candidate spouses have been conducted only during the general election phase, capturing the public’s views only of the spouses of Democratic and Republican candidates securing the nomination. In this study we draw on a unique nationally representative survey of 400 likely Democratic voters, asking them what they thought of the spouses of the top four presidential candidates in national polling as of the start of the calendar year 2020: Jill Biden, Chasten Buttigieg, Bruce Mann, and Jane Sanders. We use this data to explore the public’s assessment of this diverse group of candidate spouses and the implications for the traditionally gendered role of First Lady.
About the author
Brian Frederick serves as the Chair of the Political Science Department at Bridgewater State University. He is author of Congressional Representation and Constituents: The Case for Increasing the House of Representatives (Routledge 2010) and coauthor (with Laurel Elder and Barbara Burrell) of American Presidential Candidate Spouses: The Public’s Perspective (Palgrave MacMillan 2018) as well as articles in a wide range of peer reviewed journals.
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© 2022 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Frontmatter
- Introduction
- Introduction: Volume 20 No. 2
- Articles
- The Rural-Urban Continuum and the 2020 U. S. Presidential Election
- Obama’s Party? An Examination of Whether a Reluctant Party Leader Transformed the Democratic Party in his Favor
- Public Opinion and the Candidate Spouses in the 2020 Democratic Presidential Primary
- Writing “Home” in a Pandemic: The Prevalence of Gendered Topics in Congressional COVID-19 Communications
- Attitudes and Perceptions about the 2020 Presidential Election and Turnout Intentions in the 2022 Midterms
- Embracing Donald Trump’s Big Lie and Making Voting Harder Are Republicans Sure They Know What They are Doing?
- Surge and Decline in 2022
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Frontmatter
- Introduction
- Introduction: Volume 20 No. 2
- Articles
- The Rural-Urban Continuum and the 2020 U. S. Presidential Election
- Obama’s Party? An Examination of Whether a Reluctant Party Leader Transformed the Democratic Party in his Favor
- Public Opinion and the Candidate Spouses in the 2020 Democratic Presidential Primary
- Writing “Home” in a Pandemic: The Prevalence of Gendered Topics in Congressional COVID-19 Communications
- Attitudes and Perceptions about the 2020 Presidential Election and Turnout Intentions in the 2022 Midterms
- Embracing Donald Trump’s Big Lie and Making Voting Harder Are Republicans Sure They Know What They are Doing?
- Surge and Decline in 2022
