Welcome to DU!
The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards.
Join the community:
Create a free account
Support DU (and get rid of ads!):
Become a Star Member
Latest Breaking News
General Discussion
The DU Lounge
All Forums
Issue Forums
Culture Forums
Alliance Forums
Region Forums
Support Forums
Help & Search
General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsAn Experiment in Wisconsin Changed Voters' Minds About Trump
Changing voters minds is famously difficult, but a recent progressive effort found real success.https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/09/experiment-wisconsin-might-reveal-key-defeating-trump/616367/
No state has haunted the Democratic Partys imagination for the past four years like Wisconsin. While it was not the only state that killed Hillary Clintons presidential hopes in 2016, it was the one where the knife plunged deepest. Clinton was so confident about Wisconsin that she never even campaigned there. This year, it is one of the most fiercely contested states. The Democrats planned to hold their convention in Milwaukee, before the coronavirus pandemic forced its cancellation. Donald Trump is also making a strong play for Wisconsin. Trumps weaknesses with the electorate are familiar: Voters find him coarse, and they deplore his handling of race, the coronavirus, and protests. One recent YouGov poll found that just 42 percent of Americans approved of his performance as president, while 54 percent disapproved. But when the pollsters asked about Trumps handling of the economy, those attitudes reversed: 48 percent approved and 44 percent disapproved, despite the havoc wreaked by the pandemic. The high marks that voters give Trumps economic record are a key obstacle to Democratic efforts to win back Wisconsin and other upper-midwestern states.
But a surprisingly effective progressive effort this spring to undermine Trumps approval ratings on the economy provides a model for how the presidents opponents can hurt Trump where hes strongestand maybe even tip the election to Joe Biden. Changing voters minds is famously difficult. Recent national campaigns have spent more effort on increasing turnoutgetting sympathetic voters to go to the pollsthan on winning over new supporters. Political scientists and pollsters have found that as the country grows more negatively polarized, fewer true swing voters are up for grabs. But the Wisconsin effort, notable for both its approach and its scale, seems to have found some success. From February to May, the advocacy group Opportunity Wisconsin, with help from a progressive advocacy organization based in Washington, D.C., called the Hub Project, managed to do remarkable damage to Trumps standing with a group of persuadable voters. The effort sought to identify voters who took a favorable view of Trumps record on the economy but who might still be receptive to alternative perspectives, then spent weeks targeting them with messages arguing that the economy was actually not working for Wisconsin, and that Trumps policies werent helping.
The most impressive thing is that they clearly had some effect in changing how people think about Donald Trump, and thats just really difficult to do, says David Broockman, a political scientist at UC Berkeley who studies persuasion. For a real program to have effects on what people think about Trump in the field, not an artificial setting like a focus group, is quite impressive. Theres very little Ive seen this election cycle that has found that. Research by Broockman and Yales Josh Kalla from earlier this year showed that while messages about Biden could swing voters opinions about him, views about Trump were almost immovable. The Opportunity Wisconsin push was built on a combination of tactics old and new, simple and sophisticated. The group is officially nonpartisan, and does not disclose its donors. But Meghan Roh, a former Democratic House and Senate staffer who is the groups program director, told me it was formed out of a concern that progressive organizations werent speaking effectively to people in Wisconsin. Trumps strong economic numbers in the state jumped out as a perfect example.
As my colleague Ronald Brownstein reported in 2019, citing Hub Project research, a potentially crucial group of voters approves of Trumps handling of the economy, but is skeptical of his overall performance. The presidents numbers on the economy remain a rare bright spot for him, even amid coronavirus-induced economic devastation. Just a few months ago, there was routinely a double-digit spread between those who approved and disapproved of his handling of the economybut Trump's numbers remain narrowly positive, according to RealClearPolitics average. The national trend holds true in Wisconsin. In a recent Marquette Law School poll, 51 percent of Wisconsinites approved of Trumps handling of the economy, versus 46 percent who did not. (In the same poll, respondents favored Biden over Trump, 48 percent to 42 percent.) With Trump even more embattled than he was a year ago, these voters who approve of Trump on the economy but not on much else are even more crucial in November. Opportunity Wisconsin saw this as a classic chance to attack an opponents strength, rather than his weakness.
snip
InfoView thread info, including edit history
TrashPut this thread in your Trash Can (My DU » Trash Can)
BookmarkAdd this thread to your Bookmarks (My DU » Bookmarks)
1 replies, 1174 views
ShareGet links to this post and/or share on social media
AlertAlert this post for a rule violation
PowersThere are no powers you can use on this post
EditCannot edit other people's posts
ReplyReply to this post
EditCannot edit other people's posts
Rec (12)
ReplyReply to this post
1 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight:
NoneDon't highlight anything
5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies
An Experiment in Wisconsin Changed Voters' Minds About Trump (Original Post)
Celerity
Sep 2020
OP
luv2fly
(2,475 posts)1. The full article is worth the read
Thanks for sharing!