This is a term used by political analysts to describe a particular type of campaigning tactic, in which candidates engage in personal contact with individual voters in a variety of informal settings such as restaurants, union halls, and even voters’ living rooms. For the most part, retail politicking by candidates is part of a bygone era. However, it is still practiced in two states: Iowa and New Hampshire. While, realistically, the types of voters who reside in these states are not representative of most of the nation as a whole, these states hold the earliest presidential caucus and the earliest primary, respectively, and so they serve to introduce the candidates to the nation. Moreover, victories in these early states often set the tone for later campaign events—candidates who are early winners get more campaign contributions, receive more favorable media coverage, and ultimately are viewed as more viable than their competitors.
Because voters in Iowa and New Hampshire have an expectation that they will be able to meet political candidates in person, candidates flock to these states, often making numerous visits years before the presidential election takes place. Some candidates even purchase second homes in one of them with the expectation that their frequent visits will make such homes cost-effective. In the 1970s and 1980s, coverage of events in these two early states constituted a quarter of all election coverage combined. Examples of presidential candidates engaged in retail politicking can be seen in the 1960 cinéma vérité classic Primary, directed by Robert Drew, and in the 1993 documentary The War Room, directed by Chris Hegedus and D. A. Pennebaker. More recently, what could reasonably called retail politicking influenced the momentum of Sen. Rick Santorum’s run in the Iowa caucus, as his informal, personal, and dramatic appearance with his wife in a small-town pizza diner provided his campaign with a pivotal moment. More recently still, what could be called retail politicking seems to be very much alive in Iowa, as recent events such as Donald Trump’s helicopter rides seem to indicate. While retail politicking elsewhere in the nation has all but disappeared and other states have begun to rival New Hampshire and Iowa for media attention, the symbolic role of these two early contests remains, and candidates still spend more time in those states, and interact more personally with voters there, than they do in any other state. In the near future, social media may play an increased role in organizing candidate appearances, especially during the heat of a primary or caucus campaign, thus potentially reintroducing reliance on old-style retail politics combined with innovative use of the Internet and related technologies.
Dimitrova, Daniela V. “The Evolution of Digital Media Use in Election Campaigns: New Functions and Cumulative Impact.” In John Allen Hendricks and Dan Schill, eds. Presidential Campaigning and Social Media. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015.
Polsby, Nelson W., Aaron Wildaskvy, Steven E. Schier, and David A. Hopkins. Presidential Elections: Strategies and Structures of American Politics. New York: Rowman & Littlefield, 2011.