God, Guns, and Bathrooms: Concepts of Morality on the Campaign Trail

Abstract

Historically, presidential campaigns have typically featured some aspect of a moral agenda. Much of that changed on the campaign trail in 2016. Many of the traditional topics used to measure public attitudes on select issues pertaining to morality and ethics were not present on the ANES 2016. Yet, the 2016 presidential campaign was noticeably devoid of a conventional “social problems” platform. This chapter examines the pivot away from the conventional campaign tactics on social issues and studies how a Supreme Court vacancy became a proxy issue that Republicans employed to court evangelicals. The vacancy effectively became a dog whistle for evangelicals and right-wing ideological conservatives to remain loyal to the Republican Party in the 2016 election.