A brave Newt world? Republican campaign strategies in the 1994 Congressional elections

The Republican "take-over" of the House of Representatives came as quite a surprise in 1994. Republican gains left scholars and pundits scrambling to explain the vast and unexpected Republican success. One explanation that has been popularly promulgated is the "nationalization" thesis. This dissertation uses rhetorical content-analytic methods to explore the issue of "nationalization" in six House races from 1994 in which Republican challengers unseated Democratic incumbents. Commonalities and presidential-style appeals were found in Republican campaigns across districts. Democratic opponents produced fragmented and inconsistent campaigns in response to the unusual Republican House campaign strategies. "Nationalization," however, is found to be an insufficiently descriptive term to label the many varied and complex appeals used by Republican challengers in 1994. Promotion of the "nationalization" thesis contributed to a false portrait of public opinion, lending credence to the idea that the 435 separate outcomes in 1994 were part of a unified public endorsement of conservative ideology.