In the book Identity Crisis, the 2016 Presidential Campaign
and the Battle for the Meaning of America, authors Sides, Tesler, and Vavreck
point out that the Democratic nomination contest in 2015-16 was very different
from the Republican nomination because of one main feature: the unity of party leaders (Sides et al, 2018).
More party leaders supported the
nomination of Clinton than any other candidate since 1980. Yet, rival Bernie Sanders produced significant
challenges despite having all odds stacked against him. Americans really did not know Sanders and he
was not part of the political establishment.
Sides notes (Sides et al, 2018), “Sanders began his primary campaign as
a virtual unknown. AS of March 2015, he
was less familiar than nearly every other candidate or potential candidate in
either party: only 24 percent of Americans could provide an opinion of him…” As
the underdog, how then did Sanders gain a significant number of votes?
Social media was the tool that made a remarkable difference
in his campaign strategy. According to
Sides (Sides et al, 2018), “In the early going, at least some of these rally
attendees showed up not only because they had seen Sanders in the news but
because they had been mobilized by the Sanders campaign and Sanders supporters
via Facebook, Reddit, emails, and other social media, or by low-tech strategies
like paper flyers and sidewalk chalk. At
this point in time, Sander’s share of news coverage far exceeded his share in
national polls.”
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