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Spouses as Campaign Surrogates: Strategic Appearances by Presidential and Vice Presidential Candidates' Wives in the 2004 Election

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 March 2008

Susan A. MacManus  and
Andrew F. Quecan
Susan A. MacManus
Affiliation:
University of South Florida, Tampa Campus
Andrew F. Quecan
Affiliation:
University of South Florida, Tampa Campus
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Extract

It is clear from the presidential primary campaign that 2008 can legitimately be labeled “the year of the spouse as surrogate.” The sheer number of candidates on both sides of the aisle and the heavily front-loaded campaign season have made using the wives—and husband—of the candidates a “must.” Never before has media attention been so heavily focused on the spouses. In fact, they have often been an equal, or in some cases, bigger story than the candidates themselves. The same pattern will characterize the spouses of the vice presidential candidates. The bottom line is that use of presidential and vice presidential spouses has become an integral part of presidential campaigns. In this article, we detail how the Bush and Kerry camps strategically scheduled spouses in the final days of the campaign—from Labor Day until Election Day. We conclude with some thoughts about what to expect in 2008.

Type
FEATURES
Information
PS: Political Science & Politics , Volume 41 , Issue 2 , April 2008 , pp. 337 - 348
Copyright
© 2008 The American Political Science Association

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