Humphrey School News on-the-go

Professor Larry Jacobs comments on Congresswoman Michele Bachmann's campaign messages.

On the surface, both candidates' shifts seem to signal that their statements have been more the products of strategy than of personal beliefs all along. Lawrence Jacobs, a political scientist at the University of Minnesota, told The New York Times that Bachmann's "recipe" is to "find the issue, then use it politically to mobilize previously marginalized or disconnected groups." As a state senator, that meant targeting disenfranchised social conservatives. Now, through the Tea Party, Bachmann has found another group of supporters who are more energized by fiscal issues than social ones. While some of these fiscal conservatives are also social conservatives, not all are.

Business Insider
August 23, 2011