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The Contemporary Presidency: The (vice) presidential pivot? Examining Kamala Harris's messaging before and after the 2022 midterms.

Aspirational vice presidents need to continuously support the president yet still make a name for themselves for future elections. To understand how US VP Kamala Harris attempted to communicatively enact this balance, this study content‐analyzed Harris's official VP and personal Twitter/X accounts l...

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Published in:Presidential Studies Quarterly Vol. 54; no. 4; pp. 503 - 523
Main Author: Meeks, Lindsey
Format: Article
Published: Wiley-Blackwell Dec2024
Subjects:
Political campaigns
Elections
Microblogs
Vice-Presidents
Democrats (United States)
Online Access:View this record in EBSCOhost
Summary:Aspirational vice presidents need to continuously support the president yet still make a name for themselves for future elections. To understand how US VP Kamala Harris attempted to communicatively enact this balance, this study content‐analyzed Harris's official VP and personal Twitter/X accounts leading up to and following the 2022 midterms to determine how she shifted her message emphases before and after the elections and across officeholder and personal accounts. Results indicate she played her "party role" pre‐midterms and "executive branch role" post‐midterms, championed Joe Biden and Democrats but not herself, and used her personal account for campaigning.