The Use of Candidate-Centered Appeals

Abstract

In the 2012 Massachusetts Senate race, Democrats cleared the field for Harvard law professor and consumer advocate Elizabeth Warren as their nominee to take back the seat won by Republican Scott Brown in a 2010 special election. While Warren had the advantage of running in a Democratic state, many political observers were impressed by the political skills Brown demonstrated in his 2010 victory and in his time as a U.S. Senator. Brown emphasized his independent streak in his campaign rhetoric and voting record. As he drove around the state in his pickup truck, he called his seat “the people’s seat,” a not-so-subtle contrast to those who called it “the Kennedy seat”¹ (Romano 2010). Brown talked up his independence from the national Republican Party and, in Washington, had a moderate voting record, highlighted by his support for the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform bill (Khimm 2012).