A massive new study reviews the evidence on whether campaigning works. The answer’s bleak. – Vox

A massive new study reviews the evidence on whether campaigning works. The answer’s bleak.

All the outreach activity by political campaigns, including door to door canvassing, phone banking, direct mail, and even advertising, has basically no effect on voters’ choice of candidate in general elections, according to a striking new academic study. The new analysis covers 49 field experiments conducted in real US election campaigns, typically run with cooperation from the campaigns themselves.