Scholarship has long undervalued national party committees' role in shaping American political parties. This study argues that 'party branding' is a core goal for both the Democratic and Republican National Committees, but quantitative data was previously hard to access. To address this gap, the author created a new dataset by analyzing New York Times coverage from 1953-2012 concerning these committees' activities. Using this external source, they tested whether DNC and RNC commit to branding consistently or if their focus changes based on party control of government.
### Data & Methods
Monthly mentions of 'party branding operations' in NYT articles were tracked over time alongside references for other committee services. This approach filled a historical research gap by leveraging public media archives instead of relying solely on internal documents.
### Key Findings
Contrary to the expectation that party branding remains constant regardless of government control, this study reveals declining attention when parties hold White House power. The frequency of NYT mentions about branding activities decreased during periods of unified party control compared to split governments or divided administration eras.
### Why It Matters
This quantitative measure offers a new way to track how national committees prioritize identity work under different political conditions—providing insights unavailable through traditional archival methods alone.
| Examining Democratic and Republican National Committee Party Branding Activity, 1953-2012 was authored by Boris Heersink. It was published by Cambridge in POP in 2023. |
