Abstract
Political scientists Calfano and Djupe’s work focuses on the concept of “God Talk.” This term is defined as “the religious communication of political elites using implicit, coded cues to targeted constituencies.” In this chapter, we use the same theoretical construct to a new concept we label “Trump Talk.” Trump Talk is defined as implicit, verbal cues promoting critical Trumpian ideological references to pointed constituencies. To identify this means of communication, we examine the campaign websites of Congressional candidates endorsed by President Trump in the 2022 primary and general election races for evidence of four Trumpian messages: the 2020 election was stolen or manipulated, demands to build a border wall, America must be made great, and the claim of deep state existence. We then analyze the election results of endorsed candidates to determine what relationship there may be between their performance and their use of Trump and/or God Talk.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Bartz, Juliet. 2020. “The Methodology of the Trump Loyalty Index.” Axios, October 13. https://www.axios.com/2020/10/13/trump-loyalty-index-methodology.
Bauer, Fred. 2022. “Trump as GOP Kingmaker.” National Review, May 14. https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/trump-as-gop-kingmaker/.
Benoit, William L. 2022. Communication in Political Campaigns, 2nd ed. New York: Peter Lang.
Brownstein, Ronald. 2021. Trump Leaves America at Its Most Divided Since the Civil War. CNN, January 19. https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/19/politics/trump-divided-america-civil-war/index.html.
Bump, Philip. 2021. “With Trump Sidelined, the GOP Has Learned to Enforce Loyalty to Trumpism All by Itself.” Washington Post, November 16. https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/11/16/with-trump-sidelined-gop-has-learned-enforce-loyalty-trumpism-all-by-itself/.
Calfano, Brian, and Paul Djupe. 2009. “God Talk: Religious Cues and Electoral Support.” Political Research Quarterly 62 (2): 329–39.
Cerda, Andy, and Andrew Daniller. 2022. “Before Midterms, Trump's Image Among Republicans Had Become Less Positive.” Pew Research, November 14. https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2022/11/14/before-midterms-trumps-image-among-republicans-had-become-less-positive/.
Cohen, Marty, David Karol, Hans Noel, and John Zaller. 2008. The Party Decides: Presidential Nominations Before and After Reform. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Colvin, Jill. 2022. “Trump 2024 Campaign Prepares for Post-Midterms Launch.” Associated Press, November 2. https://apnews.com/article/2022-midterm-elections-donald-trump-41b12f18f536017920d2f74803980899.
Cottam, Martha, Elena Mastors, Thomas Preston, and Beth Dietz. 2016. Introduction to Political Psychology, 3rd ed. New York: Routledge.
De Tocqueville, Alexis. 2022. Democracy in America. Translated by Harvey C. Mansfield and Debra Winthrop. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Denton, Robert E. Jr., Judith S. Trent, and Robert V. Friedenberg. 2020. Political Campaign Communication: Principles and Practices. 9th ed. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield.
Denton, Robert E. 2017. Political Campaign Communication in the 2016 Presidential Election, 8th ed. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield.
Dias, E., and R. Graham. 2021. “How White Evangelical Christians Fused with Trump Extremism.” New York Times, January 11. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/11/us/how-white-evangelical-christians-fused-with-trump-extremism.html.
Djupe, Paul, and Brian Calfano. 2014. God Talk: Experimenting with the Religious Causes of Public Opinion. Pennsylvania: Temple University Press.
Druckman, James N., Martin J. Kifer, and Michael Parkin. 2010. “Timeless Strategy Meets New Medium: Going Negative on Congressional Campaign Web Sites, 2002–2006.” Political Communication 27 (1): 88–103.
Elving, Ron. 2022. “The Midterms Didn't Produce a Wave. Here's What That's Meant Historically.” National Public Radio, November 13. https://www.npr.org/2022/11/13/1136103595/the-midterms-didnt-produce-a-wave-heres-what-thats-meant-historically.
Flanagin, Andrew J., and Miriam J. Metzger. 2007. “The Role of Site Features, User Attributes, and Information Verification Behaviors on the Perceived Credibility of Web-Based Information.” New Media & Society 9 (2): 319–342. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444807075015.
———. 2017. “Digital Media and Perceptions of Source Credibility in Political Communication.” In The Oxford Handbook of Political Communication, edited by Kate Kenski and Kathleen Hall Jamieson, 425–41. New York: Oxford University Press.
Fogg, B. J. et al. 2001. “What Makes Web Sites Credible? A Report on a Large Quantitative Study.” In Proceedings of ACM CHI 2001 Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. Seattle. https://simson.net/ref/2001/p61-fogg.pdf.
Jerit, Jennifer. 2004. “Survival of the Fittest: Rhetoric During the Course of an Election Campaign.” Political Psychology 25 (4): 563–75.
Johnson, Janet. 2021. Political Rhetoric, Social Media, and American Presidential Campaigns: Candidates Use of New Media. Lanham: Lexington Books.
Gigerenzer, Gerd, and Reinhard Selten. 2001. “Rethinking Rationality.” In Bounded Rationality: The Adaptive Toolbox, edited by Reinhard Selten and Gerd Gigerenzer, 1–12. Cambridge: The MIT Press.
Hassan, Steven. 2019. The Cult of Trump: A Leading Cult Expert Explains How the President Uses Mind Control. New York: Free Press.
Hillygus, D. Sunshine., and Todd G. Shields. 2008. The Persuadable Voter. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Jacobs, Alan M. 2011. Governing for the Long Term: Democracy and the Politics of Investment. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Kousser, Lucas, S., Seth Masket, and Eric McGhee. 2015. “Kingmakers or Cheerleaders? Party Power and the Causal Effects of Endorsements.” Political Research Quarterly 68 (3): 443–56.
Kuo, David. 2006. Tempting Faith: An Inside Story of Political Seduction. New York: Free Press.
Lau, Richard R., and David P. Redlawsk. 2006. How Voters Decide: Information Processing in Election Campaigns. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Lipset, Seymour Martin. 1993. American Exceptionalism: A Double-Edged Sword. New York: W. W. Norton.
Lupia, Arthur. 1994. “Shortcuts Versus Encyclopedias: Information and Voting Behavior in California Insurance Reform Elections.” American Political Science Review 88 (1): 63–76.
Manseau, Peter. 2016. “Los Angeles Times Op-Ed: Is Trumpism Its Own Religion?” Los Angeles Times, June 21. https://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-manseau-trump-religious-movement-20160621-snap-story.html
Mayhew, David R. 1974. Congress: The Electoral Connection. New Haven: Yale University Press.
McDermott, Monika L. 2006. “Not for Members Only: Group Endorsements as Electoral Information Cues.” Political Research Quarterly 59 (2): 249–57.
Mercieca, Jennifer R. 2020. Demagogue for President: The Rhetorical Genius of Donald Trump. College Station: Texas A&M University Press.
Metzger, Miriam J., Andrew J. Flanagin, and Ryan B. Medders. 2010. Social and Heuristic Approaches to Credibility Evaluation Online. Journal of Communication 60 (3): 413–439.
Milligan, Susan. 2022. “The Red Wave That Wasn’t.” U.S. News and World Report, November 9. https://www.usnews.com/news/elections/articles/2022-11-09/the-red-wave-that-wasnt.
––––––. 2017. “New Media and Political Campaigns.” In The Oxford Handbook of Political Communication, edited by Kate Kenski and Kathleen Hall Jamieson, 829–44. New York: Oxford University Press.
Niedzwiadek, Nick. 2021. “Biden Terminating Border Wall Construction Contracts.” Politico, April 30. https://www.politico.com/news/2021/04/30/biden-terminates-border-wall-construction-485123
Park, Hun Myoung, and James L. Perry. 2007. “Do Campaign Web Sites Really Matter in Electoral Civic Engagement? Empirical Evidence from the 2004 Post-Election Internet Tracking Survey.” Social Science Computer Review Online.
Popkin, Samuel L. 1994. The Reasoning Voter: Communication and Persuasion in Presidential Campaigns. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Riker, William H. 1996. The Strategy of Rhetoric: Campaigning for the American Constitution. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Rogers, Alex, and Gabby Orr. 2021. “Trump Pulls Strings Behind the Scenes to Help Loyal 2022 Candidates.” CNN, November 26. https://www.cnn.com/2021/11/26/politics/trump-2022-candidates-north-carolina-alabama-georgia/index.html.
Skowronek, Stephen, John A. Dearborn, and Desmond King. 2021. Phantoms of a Beleaguered Republic: The Deep State and The Unitary Executive. New York: Oxford University Press.
Tharoor, Ishaan. 2019. “The Ill-Fated Symbolism of Trump’s Wall”. Washington Post, January 14. https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2019/01/14/ill-fated-symbolism-trumps-wall/.
Tversky, Amos, and Daniel Kahneman. 1974. “Availability: A Heuristic for Judging Frequency and Probability.” Cognitive Psychology 5 (2): 207–32.
Eemeren, Van, H. Frans, and Rob Grootendorst. 2010. Argumentation, Communication, and Fallacies: A Pragma-Dialectical Perspective. New York: Routledge.
———. 2016. Argumentation, Communication, and Fallacies: A Pragma-Dialectical Perspective. New York: Routledge.
Vis, Barbara. 2019. “Heuristics and Political Elites Judgement and Decision-Making.” Political Studies Review 17 (1): 42–42.
Woods, John, and Douglas Walton. 1974. “Argumentum ad Verecundiam.” Philosophy & Rhetoric 7 (3): 135–53.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2023 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Herrera, B.P., Casey, K.L. (2023). Talking Trump: An Assessment of Trumpian Rhetorical Cues Among Trump Endorsees in the 2022 Congressional Elections. In: Wilson, W.C., Foreman, S.D., Godwin, M.L. (eds) The Roads to Congress 2022. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-42749-7_3
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-42749-7_3
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-031-42748-0
Online ISBN: 978-3-031-42749-7
eBook Packages: Political Science and International StudiesPolitical Science and International Studies (R0)