The MAGA Label as a Cue during the 2022 Midterm Elections

• In Event: The 2022 U.S. Midterm Elections on Twitter

Abstract

Like the Tea Party label before it, the “MAGA” label, short for “Make American Great Again,” presents opportunities for Republican candidates to shore up conservative bona fides and connect with an activist base (Gervais and Morris 2018). However, it also provides Democrats with a nifty heuristic for painting their opponents as radicals. Ostensibly, both occurred during the 2022 midterm elections; Joe Biden, for example, regularly referenced “MAGA Republicans” as source of disfunction and radicalism.

If the MAGA label functions like the Tea Party label as a heuristic, then there are electoral consequences. For instance, Republican candidates who were often associated with the Tea Party during the 2010 and 2012 elections were also more likely to be perceived as conservative or very conservative--even when controlling for candidate and voter ideology--while their Democratic opponents are perceived to be more moderate (Gervais and Taylor 2016).

We aim to extend earlier research on the Tea Party label as a heuristic by investigating the use of the MAGA label by candidates. Using a large dataset of tweets from congressional campaign accounts collected ahead of the 2022 midterm election, we identify the frequency with which Democratic and Republican candidates referenced the “MAGA” movement in tweets, and document differences in how the label was used between the parties.

Gervais, Bryan T., and Irwin L. Morris. 2018. Reactionary Republicanism: How the Tea Party in the House Paved the Way for Trump’s Victory. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

Gervais, Bryan T., and Jeffrey A. Taylor. 2016. “Subpartisan Cues and Ideological Distinctions: The Effect of the Tea Party Label on Voter Perceptions of Congressional Candidates.” Social Science Quarterly 97(5): 1130–43.

Authors

• Bryan Gervais, University of Texas at San Antonio

• Madison Hering, Rice University