Abstract
ABSTRACTThis article explores the strategy of a left-progressive congressional candidate in one of the most Republican areas in Pennsylvania during the 2018 election cycle. Using ethnographic and interview data, we discuss how campaign actors used left-populist discourse in their attempt to organize collective political identities, contest elections, and build long term grassroots power in a conservative rural district. The key tactic for organizers was the persuasion cycle, where canvassers would develop rich personal narratives and engage voters in deep conversations. Persuasion conversations coupled populist critiques of “the elite” and the valorization of “the people” with a left-progressive policy agenda and ideology. Using the ideational populism framework, we argue that the “thin centered” ideology of populism and the left-progressive discourse of the campaign were co-constructed in their practice.
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