Candidate Narrative Research

By: Catherine Jones

As a student researcher member of the team, I have the unique experience to speak with the audience of voters.  As an extension of our fall class, my research partner and I are evaluating candidate campaign narratives.  We have studied the GOP debates, candidate ads and campaign websites in order to determine the campaign messages for each candidate. In hopes of finding message penetration, we have been asking voters questions like “Which candidate do you support as the GOP nominee for 2012? What have they said to gain your support?” and “who are you sure not to support? And why?”  We are looking to see if the reasons voters support candidates align with the candidate campaign messages. 

So, what have we found so far?  The Iowans are very friendly people that are willing to talk.  They’ve been more than happy to answer my research questions, and often spent 5-10 minutes talking to me and asking me about school afterwards.  As far as their political enthusiasm goes, the Newt supporters were far less enthused than the Paul supporters.  Many voters in attendance at the Newt event were still undecided and some admitted to going simply to just to observe, because they had already chosen to support another candidate.  It is still too early for me to draw any conclusions about my research, but we are headed to a Romney event and Bachman event today that will allow me to collect more data.  I am excited to speak with more voters and learn what the Iowans have to teach me.