TY - JOUR
AU - MENDELBERG, TALI
AB - EXECUTING HORTONS RACIAL CRIME IN THE 1988 PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN TALI MENDELBERG George Bush opposes gun control and favors executing Hor- tons. I would guess Willy [sic] Horton doesn’t. (A white focus- group participant, Texas, October 1988) Introduction Contemporary historians of the South, following in the steps of Du Bois and Woodward, have recognized that racial campaigns can affect far more than voters’ behavior at the ballot box. Given the right conditions, a racial campaign can reinforce a variety of racially conservative views and ac- tions (e.g., Lewis 1993). Scholars of public opinion have been slower to explore the possibility that elections have broad consequences for public opinion. This article seeks to remedy that neglect. It examines the way in which racial campaigns prime racial predispositions in whites’ views of government policies designed to ameliorate racial inequality. The 1988 presidential campaign’s Willie Horton episode is my vehicle of choice. Perhaps no other campaign tactic has come to represent better the race card in contemporary elections. Yet, to date no evidence exists that the Willie Horton story was effective. More generally, few direct quantitative studies exist of the impact of racial campaign communica- tion. Here I use the Horton episode to 
TI - Executing Hortons: Racial Crime in the 1988 Presidential Campaign
JF - Public Opinion Quarterly
DO - 10.1086/297790
DA - 1997-05-01
UR - https://www.deepdyve.com/lp/oxford-university-press/executing-hortons-racial-crime-in-the-1988-presidential-campaign-Jatab10Dzs
SP - 134
EP - 157
VL - 61
IS - 1
DP - DeepDyve
ER -