The (surprisingly interesting) story of e-mail in the 2016 presidential election

ABSTRACT

There was more discussion of e-mails and e-mail servers in the 2016 election than any previous campaign. Yet, practically no attention was paid to the actual e-mails distributed by campaigns themselves. This study explores how presidential campaigns used e-mail as a strategic tool during the 2016 election. We collected and analyzed e-mails from all major party candidates over 10 months leading up to election day. The campaigns were organized into three categories based on how successful they were and how seriously they were run. Comparing the use of e-mail within each category and between them illuminates variation in how campaigns used e-mail, including during the primaries and the general election between Clinton and Trump. Notably, the Trump campaign e-mails were more participatory, fitting the populist theme of the campaign, and the Clinton campaign made the surprising strategic decision to stop direct e-mail communication to passive e-mail subscribers over two months before election day. Overall this study demonstrates how some strategies, such as the frequency of emailing, focus on fundraising, and consistent forms of interactions have become widely accepted norms. Further, it is clear that e-mail remains valuable for campaigns and an important subject for scholarship, despite its mundane nature.

KEYWORDS:

• 2016 Election
• e-mail
• Donald Trump
• Hillary Clinton
• political communication
• presidential campaigns
• internet

Notes

1. For some candidates, additional accounts were created because one or more had fallen inactive.

2. In this estimation, we proved correct. Iowa remained neck and neck in public opinion polls until the final weeks and Clinton won New Hampshire by a mere.3% of the vote.

3. The sample was selected from Donald Trump’s campaign e-mails because they varied more than any other, as noted in the next section.

4. This total of 14 contests includes American Samoa and Americans abroad.

5. The choice for inclusion among Republicans was more challenging, but John Kasich, who competed in the field longer than most, failed to prove viable outside of his home state of Ohio. Kasich ultimately won 161 delegates, but his avowed strategy was not to win a majority outright so much as to block competitors.

6. Hillary Clinton, “Attention Needed: Email Status,” September 10, 2016.

7. Emily’s List officially endorsed Hillary Clinton for president on April 12, 2015. Beginning in July 2016, one of our Clinton accounts first began to receive e-mails from the organization, but they were infrequent and outnumbered by Hillary for President e-mails. In addition, e-mails from Emily’s List to Clinton accounts have continued since the election.

8. Bobby Jindal, “Trump’s Success Exposes Our Failure As Conservatives,” March 3, 2016.

9. Team Pataki, “Donald Trump Is Unfit To Be President,” September 9, 2015.

10. The authors note that this was not the case for more actively engaged Clinton supporters. This portion of her e-mail list continued to receive heavy doses of e-mail throughout the general election.