Campaigning During a Crisis: The Pandemic’s Impact on Congressional Campaign Strategy and Spending in 2020

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic was a defining feature of the 2020 election. It led many states to revamp their voting policies and some voters to change the modality they use to cast a ballot. Whether COVID-related health concerns or state voting policies influenced political campaigns remains an important, but unanswered question. This study assesses the pandemic’s influence on US House candidates’ spending strategies using a dataset comprising itemized campaign expenditures, COVID mortality rates, state voting policies, candidate attributes, district partisanship, and other contextual variables. This study demonstrates that, despite these unprecedented shocks, the campaigns waged in 2020 were remarkably similar to campaigns in preceding elections.

Keywords

COVID-19 campaign strategy and spending congressional elections voting policies election administration

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