Losing the Electoral Battle to Win the Culture War: The Trump Movement and the Rightward Shift of the Republican Grassroots


Catharina O'Donnell, Harvard

How can we explain Donald Trump's historically unprecedented resurgence and the accompanying right-ward shift of the Republican Party? Most research on grassroots conservatism in the US focuses on Republican strongholds or competitive "swing" states (Russell Hochschild 2016; Ternullo 2024). This election-focused approach overlooks an important puzzle: some of the most fervent conservative mobilization arises from staunchly progressive regions where Democrats dominate electorally. Through a mixed-methods quantitative and ethnographic analysis of the grassroots Trump movement, I examine how local political contexts shape the cultural logics and tactical repertoires of social movements. 

This paper will be presented at the following session: