Recently, President Trump visited Montana to campaign against U.S. Sen. Jon Tester — hoping to help Tester’s Republican challenger Matt Rosendale this November. …
The Tester campaign has hammered on the fact that Rosendale is a native of Maryland — and would rather develop than protect Montana’s public lands. Rosendale’s GOP allies, meanwhile, have pointed voters’ attention to the fact that Tester bought a home in the D.C. area and — they claim — has embraced “the swamp” and lost touch with Montana.
But is there any evidence that these sorts of appeals work? Our research, forthcoming at Political Research Quarterly, suggests that yes, this can be a potentially effective strategy, but that it may work differently in rural and in urban places. CONT.
B. Kal Munis & Nicholas F. Jacobs (U. of Virginia), Monkey Cage