How the 2024 U.S. Presidential Debates Shaped Candidate Brand Associations

As the most-watched U.S. political events, televised presidential debates are primetime opportunities for candidates to market themselves to voters. We employ political marketing theory and the concept of candidate brands to measure the cognitive and attitudinal outcomes of viewing one of the 2024 general election presidential debates. Using survey data collected during each of the three debates—Biden/Trump in June, Harris/Trump in September, and Walz/Vance in October—we measure the associative thoughts voters had about candidates, their directional valence, and their effects on attitudes toward candidates. We compare candidate brand outcomes across debates, candidate performance, and partisan voters, situating our findings within the historic and unprecedented nature of the 2024 debates as well as the literature on partisan social identity and debate viewing. The vice-presidential candidates gained the most positive brand favorability, while incumbent president Joe Biden had the worst brand outcomes, even while accounting for partisan in-group support. Our study contributes to the conversations on the 2024 presidential election along with scholarship on presidential debates and political marketing.