The role of campaigns throughout American history has typically been to mask who the candidate really is; money is raised and spent to construct a public version of an individual that may be wholly distinct from who they are privately.
But today, campaigns for public office are doing more to expose who people really are than they are providing a more palatable avatar. This week, two videos of former Rep. Katie Porter, a California Democratic gubernatorial candidate, hit the internet, one in which she snidely ridicules a reporter asking her generic questions about reaching out to people of different parties, and one in which she snaps at a campaign staffer to “get out of my f—ing shot!” while she conducted an online interview with representatives of then-President Joe Biden’s administration in July 2021.
In the Donald Trump era, there is no such thing as bad news — there is only attention.
The idea that Porter seems to be a terrible boss is nothing new; two years ago, she faced similar allegations during a U.S. Senate campaign in which people identifying themselves as former congressional staffers accused her of being “abusive and racist.” (Porter’s communications director at the time denied this, saying, “She has never been racist or abusive to staff.”)
So to deflect the video releases this week, Porter simply had to warm up the Xerox machine and fire off some old statements arguing she holds her staff “to a high standard.” (This was similar to the response provided by former presidential candidate Amy Klobuchar when a report accused her of winging cellphones at her staff as if she were Pedro Martinez throwing fastballs.)
In the wake of such a disastrous week, some on social media have wondered aloud whether Porter would be forced to exit the race. But given the modern shamelessness of candidates, that question can only be answered with a hearty chortle. Of course, she’s not going anywhere.
For one, given the rapid rate at which news (both real and fake) is now disseminated, l’affaire Porter will be forgotten in a week. Few scandals today withstand the test of just a few days.
But in the digital era, candidates have no incentive to drop out; given the ocean of information careening between our ears, any attention is now good attention.
And oftentimes, that attention, no matter how negative, can actually help a candidate. In 2016, one of the two remaining major presidential candidates was caught on video boasting about groping women, and he ended up cruising to the White House. In the Donald Trump era, there is no such thing as bad news — there is only attention. And many people support Trump not only in spite of his terrible behavior, but they also like him more because he is frequently loathsome. They see it as the strength needed to fight the Katie Porters of the world.
As a result, virtually nobody drops out anymore. Take 2024 North Carolina Republican gubernatorial candidate Mark Robinson, who, in his past, reportedly frequented a pornographic website where he allegedly bragged of being a “black Nazi,” dreamed of the day slavery would one day return, denied the existence of the Holocaust, criticized the Black Panther movie because it had been made by Jews, and accused former first lady Michelle Obama of being a man. (Robinson denied he made the online comments.)
These revelations were made known a full month and a half before the election, so surely Robinson backed out of the race, right? Of course he didn’t — he remained on the ticket and 40% of North Carolinians voted for him, evidently believing he would make a good governor. Comparatively, Mark Robinson makes Katie Porter look like Winston Churchill (who also treated his staff shabbily on occasion).
Or consider current Democratic Virginia attorney general candidate Jay Jones, who in 2022 sent a slew of tasteless text messages to a fellow lawmaker suggesting the speaker of the Virginia House should be shot. Jones has said he is “embarrassed, ashamed, and sorry,” but has indicated he intends to stay in the race.
And why wouldn’t he? In 2022, Georgia Republican Senate candidate Herschel Walker refused to deny accusations he once held a gun to his wife’s head and threatened to pull the trigger, and he walked away with nearly 49% of the vote.
This current system only incentivizes even worse people to jump into politics in order to revive their reputations.
The potential upside of voters not caring whether their elected officials are suboptimal human beings is that the era of negative campaigning may soon be over. If tattered resumes no longer matter, what’s the point in a candidate’s opponent blanketing the airwaves with scary advertisements hammering away at their misbehavior?
Then again, this current system only incentivizes even worse people to jump into politics in order to revive their reputations. It is the opposite of Mark Twain’s fictional burglar “Murphy,” who had “served one term in the penitentiary and also one in the U.S. Senate,” but who complained, “The latter statement is untrue and does me great injustice.”
The modern political landscape doesn’t reward decency or competence so much as it rewards stamina, audacity and an almost gleeful disregard for conventional morality. Candidates no longer need to be polished or likable; they only need to survive the weeklong news cycle, endure viral outrage and keep their foot in the door long enough for voters to grow numb.
Scandals no longer topple careers; they build résumés, notoriety and sometimes even fandom. If anything, the days of shaming candidates into dropping out have passed — not with a polite bow, but with the raucous, unrelenting clatter of the internet applauding chaos, cruelty and the occasional temper tantrum. Welcome to politics in the attention economy: messy, shameless and utterly unstoppable.
