Donald Trump versus Hillary Clinton

Abstract

This chapter provides details regarding the gender dynamics of the presidential primaries and general election campaign in 2016, in order to show how these phases of the presidential contest set the stage for and affected the down-ballot races. It reviews the various ways in which gender became a central theme in the presidential election and in the public discourse surrounding the election, and considers Trump’s rhetoric in the context of hypermasculine politicians’ behavior in other countries. It also describes in detail how the Republican primary deteriorated into a peculiarly graphic masculinity contest, and how Trump’s tendency toward bigoted and misogynist comments provided fuel for the Clinton campaign and its supporters, and set the stage for Republican down-ballot candidates to respond to the “Trump factor” in their own campaigns.