Introduction
Presidential campaigns descend upon the American landscape every four years, bringing
some version of political discourse to the greater awareness of an infamously inattentive
public. Understanding how or if citizens respond to the hullabaloo occurring around them
has become a flourishing field of research. An accumulating body of evidence favors the
conclusion that campaigns do, indeed, matter, though definitions of what constitute the
campaign and what it means to matter vary.
This paper, too, argues that campaigns matter. Focusing on contemporary American
presidential campaigns, I examine whether through the content of the burgeoning adver-
tising campaigns citizens learn to associate the issues a candidate emphasizes with that
candidate, thereby prodding citizens to rely more heavily and more accurately on those is-
sues when evaluating the candidate. My argument relies on developing a distinction between
recency priming – temporarily altering the standards of citizens’ evaluations of candidates
as a function of recent exposure to a consideration – and frequency or repetition priming –
altering the standards of citizens’ evaluations of candidates by influencing what citizens learn
to connect to the candidates in their long-term memory and in their broader understanding
of the candidates.
The present research focuses on the campaign period, but the broader implications are
concerned with whether citizens learn about candidates and candidate agendas during the
campaign in a way that would facilitate holding leaders accountable for their campaign
rhetoric. Ultimately, if citizens, via the campaign, connect a candidate to a set of issues, or
issue priorities, this could provide a mechanism for holding a leader more accountable to the
campaign agenda. Enduring connections, as opposed to short-term priming, may continue
to wield influence on evaluations once a candidate is ensconced in office; additionally, con-
siderations connected to the candidate in the minds of the public as a function of repetition
1
Convention