Studies of Communication in the 2020 Presidential Campaign

Robert E. Denton, Jr. holds the W. Thomas Rice Chair in the Pamplin College of Business and is professor and director of the School of Communication at Virginia Tech.

Table of Contents

Introduction and Overview: The Historic and Tragic Presidential Campaign of 2020

Robert E Denton, Jr., Virginia Tech

1. Shadowboxing: Trump’s Campaign Against Biden’s Null Persona

Dennis C. Cali, University of Texas at Tyler and Kelley E. Connor, University of Texas at Tyler

2. Donald Trump, Joe Biden, and the Construction of Crisis in Campaign 2020

Diana Zulli, Purdue University and Kevin Coe, University of Utah

3. The Trump Card: The Virtue and Vulnerability of a Narrative-based Presidency

Pat Loebs, Grace College and Karly Poyner-Smith, University of Memphis

4. The Democratic Primary Debates in Political Cartoons, or, Santa Claus Gets Voted Off Fantasy Island

Christina M. Knopf, SUNY Cortland

5. Blue Privilege and Presidential Election 2020: The Empire Returns

Benjamin Voth, Southern Methodist University

6. The 2020 Presidential Campaign, Election and Outcome: “The Agenda-Spin Persuasion Wars”

Theodore F. Sheckels, Randolph-Macon College and Richard E. Vatz, Towson University

7 Trump as the Embodiment of Plato’s Critique of Rhetoric

Timothy C. McGee, Rider University and David R. Dewberry, Rider University

8. Face Threats in the 2020 Presidential Debates

Edward A. Hinck, Shelly S. Hinck, University of Central Michigan, Robert S. Hinck, Air University (Maxwell Air Force Base) and William O. Dailey, University of Central Michigan.