The Gender Content of Senate Campaign Advertisements

This chapter explores themes in the campaign advertising of Senate candidates and their allies in the 2016 general election. It details the ways in which Democrats sought to tie their opponents to Donald Trump, highlighting Trump’s more offensive statements, and alleging that their opponents were “weak” or unmanly in their response to Trump. It also examines the extent to which Republican candidates sought to distance themselves from Donald Trump’s campaign in their ads, and how campaigns on both sides sought to tie their opponents to Trump and Clinton. The chapter pays particular attention to explicit and implicit references to gender and gender norms. It also examines whether particular ads were aimed at influencing particular demographic groups (men, women) by activating gender-normative expectations about candidates, in both positive ads and attack ads.