Resumen de Challenge to the “rule of minimum effect”: a case study of the in man‐out man strategy

James T. Kitchens, Betsey Stiteler

• It is politically axiomatic that incumbents have an initial advantage over a challenger in an election campaign. The purpose of this study was to examine the assumptions of a strategy used to defeat incumbents, to develop a rationale for these assumptions from past communication research, and to explain how this rationale was used as a campaign strategy in the 1977 Fort Worth, Texas mayoral election. From this case study, needed areas of political communication research related to campaigns against incumbents are proposed.