Donald Trump loves his big political rallies and so do his supporters. Many people who have attended liken the rallies to music festivals or rock …
Donald Trump loves his big political rallies and so do his supporters. Many people who have attended liken the rallies to music festivals or rock concerts. They’re also uniquely effective at garnering support, increasing turnout, and raising campaign contributions, according to a study by Harvard political scientist James Snyder and economist Hasin Yousaf of Australia’s University of New South Wales. No wonder Trump has been holding so many of them lately. “We find that Trump’s rallies produced a short-lived increase in his support over Clinton (especially among leaning Republicans), intention to vote (especially among strong Republicans), and individual campaign contributions for him,” the professors write in the abstract of their paper. The pair looks at data from a large survey – the Cooperative Congressional Elections Study (CCES) – that allowed them to look at support for Trump a few days before a rally and a few days afterward in areas near where the rally was held. They then compared this to before and after support for Trump in places that were not near the rally, allowing them to isolate the effect of the rally from other factors.
