From handshakes to texts: Voter contact in the 2020 and 2022 elections

Abstract

The 2020 election marked a watershed moment, shaped by a tumultuous political landscape, racial tensions, and the challenge of conducting an election during a global pandemic. Trump and Biden adopted divergent voter mobilization strategies: Trump embraced in-person contact, while Biden leaned into virtual campaigning. Using the Cooperative Election Study (CES) data, I demonstrate how voter contact changed from 2020 to 2022, with increased virtual contact during 2020 while in-person contact resurged in 2022. I show how partisanship influenced the manner of contact, with Republicans predominantly targeted through in-person efforts in 2020 and Democrats virtually. Though post-covid, in 2022, Democrats were more likely to be contacted in-person and virtually. I include 2012 and 2014 CES data to contextualize these findings, assessing whether the trends are unique to the COVID-19 era or to differences in midterm v. General elections. Overall, these findings reveal evolving dynamics of voter contact in the digital age.