“Members of a president’s party often avoid mentions of the president during a midterm election year, but 2018 is proving to be an exception,” according to an analysis by the Wesleyan Media Project.
“President Trump was referenced positively in 14.8% of federal election ads (amounting to over 27,000 ads) in the past two months, whereas President Obama was mentioned positively in less than 1% of federal election ads aired during the same time period in 2010 and 2014. Even George W. Bush in 2002, whose approval ratings were sky high in the wake of the September 2001 terrorist attacks, was mentioned positively in a smaller share of federal ads (13.9%).”
“Trump was also referenced negatively in fewer ads than Obama was in 2010 and 2014 during the same summer time period (June 5 through July 29). Trump gets a negative mention in 9.7% of airings, while Obama was mentioned in a disapproving way in 16.1% of ads in 2010 and 26.6 percent of ads in 2014. George W. Bush, however, was mentioned negatively in almost no ads in 2002 and in less than 5% of ads in 2006.”
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