How political ideology relates to political branding in the United States: A longitudinal analysis of the 2016, 2018, and 2020 elections

Do republican voters always care about financial security? Do democrat voters always want care for immigrants? This research examines political ideology aspects over a period of three election cycles in the United States to study the ideological connections with republican and democrat voters. These relationships are important to understand as political candidates use marketing strategies to create and maintain their brand image, and thus, turn themselves into “brandidates.” Unlike those existing studies that focus on how to build a political brand image, this research examines how voter political ideology is related to the branded image candidates build for themselves. This research assesses this relationship over three election cycles (2016, 2018, 2020) allowing us to understand, through a longitudinal analysis, not only the strength of these relationships, but also which ideologies are un/stable in their association with specific political candidates/parties. Ten constructs are employed to measure the aspects of political ideology and are linked together through the overarching framework of integrated threat theory and are primarily explained by the three theories of social identity, economic insecurity, and systems justification. Practically, these findings can be used by candidates, campaign managers, political parties, and marketing consultants to better connect with the electorate and appeal to existing supporters, undecided voters, and possibly those from other parties.