Blue Governors in Red States and Red Governors in Blue States

Abstract

The geopolitical boundary has been an important topic for discourse in American politics. There are a significant number of studies about the effects of geopolitics in general elections (Yun, Jasperson, & Kaid, 2010; Yun, Opheim, & Hanks, 2014), but the area of research regarding midterm elections is very limited in its scope and target. Moreover, research in gubernatorial campaigns and elections and the practical campaign techniques has been less explored. There have been no general or consistent conclusions regarding the campaign dynamics in gubernatorial elections. Some studies argue that the process and effect of campaigns and electoral behaviors are the same in both presidential and gubernatorial elections (e.g., Peltzman, 1992), while other studies assert that gubernatorial elections are different from presidential elections and that voter preferences in governor’s races are more likely bound by political and socioeconomic conditions of the states they are in (Brown, 2010). A midterm election provides an optimal circumstance to observe gubernatorial campaigns since a presidential campaign does not overshadow lower and state levels of elections and campaigns (Vavreck, 2001). The current study observes the effective themes of gubernatorial campaigns across battleground and nonbattleground states during the 2014 midterm election.